Dow to tap further into shale-gas feedstock resources
9 May 2012
Midland, Michigan - Dow Chemical Co. is to construct a new world-scale ethylene production plant at Dow Texas Operations in Freeport, Texas, as part of a recently plan to further connect its US operations with cost-advantaged feedstocks available from increasing supplies of US shale gas.
The outlook for advantaged US natural gas was a significant factor in Dow’s decision to invest $4 billion to grow our overall ethylene and propylene production capabilities in the US Gulf Coast region, according to Jim Fitterling, Dow executive VP and president of feedstocks & energy and corporate development.
“Today, 70% of the company’s global ethylene assets are in regions with cost advantaged feedstocks - and we’ve seen the benefits this advantage provides given oil-based naphtha margin pressure in Europe and Asia,” said Fitterling.
“This plan represents a game-changing move to strengthen the competitiveness of our high-margin, high-growth derivatives businesses as we continue to capture growth in the Americas,” he added.
Dow Texas Operations in Freeport is Dow’s largest integrated manufacturing site worldwide and the largest single-company chemical complex in North America. It currently manufactures 44% of Dow products sold in the US and more than 20% of Dow products sold globally
Projects announced as part of the company’s U.S. Gulf Coast investment plan are moving forward according to schedule, a Dow statement noted. A new ethylene production unit project is currently on track for start-up in 2017, and Dow continues to develop feedstock supply arrangements for this new asset.
On 7 March Dow announced that it had authorised capital to finalise detailed engineering and purchase long lead-time equipment for a new, world-scale propylene production facility to be constructed at Dow Texas Operations.
Basic engineering work for the new on-purpose propylene production facility at Dow Texas Operations has commenced, and the project is on track for production start-up in 2015.
Last December, Dow and UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, signed a technology licensing agreement, enabling on-purpose propylene production at the facility. Dow is to license UOP’s proprietary UOP C3 Oleflex TM process technology for manufacturing on-purpose propylene from propane.
Dow also signed catalyst supply and performance guarantee agreements with UOP.
Recomissioning work on an ethylene production unit at Dow’s manufacturing site near Hahnville, Louisiana is progressing as planned, and the unit is on track to restart at the end of this year.
