Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem, The Woodlands, Texas / USA; www.cpchem.com) has wrapped up the study of where to locate two new polyethylene lines – part of the group’s US Gulf Coast Petrochemicals Project – see Plasteurope.com of 12.04.2012. At the beginning of May 2012, the US petrochemical giant announced that the two lines, with an estimated capacity of 500,000 t/y each, would be built near its existing Sweeny / Old Ocean facility in Texas. CPChem also said the lines, which will be designed by Jacobs Engineering Group (Pasadena, California / USA; www.jacobs.com), will utilise its proprietary Loop Slurry Technology. According to Plasteurope.com’s Polyglobe capacity database (www.polyglobe.net), CPChem’s current cracker capacity in Sweeny stands at almost 1.9m t/y.

The US group simultaneously announced that it had reached a front-end engineering and design (FEED) agreement with Shaw Energy & Chemicals, part of Shaw Group (Baton Rouge, Louisiana / USA; www.shawgrp.com), whereby the latter will design CPChem’s 1.5m t/y ethane cracker in Cedar Bayou, Texas. The group said it expects to complete its entire Gulf Coast petrochemicals hub – which will create about 400 long-term and an estimated 10,000 construction jobs – by 2017.