Following a 13 June explosion at the petrochemicals complex in Geismar, Louisiana belonging to US energy infrastructure company Williams (Tulsa, Oklahoma; www.williams.com), which forced the company to shut down its cracker – see Plasteurope.com of 17.06.2013 – it now looks like it will take until April 2014 before the company has its facility back up and running again, and, with it, an expansion project increasing capacity at the cracker. The expansion project calls for increasing the facility's ethylene capacity by up to 50%. The project is being overseen by Williams subsidiary Williams Olefins.

Equipment in need of repair or replacement following the explosion, which at the time left two dead and 115 individuals injured, some seriously, includes piping and heat exchangers associated with the propylene fractionator, significant portions of the electrical power cable and control wiring in the plant as well as support structures and piping impacted by the incident.

The company has provided no details as to what caused the incident; however, the "Times Picayune", a major daily newspaper (New Orleans, Louisiana), at the end of June reported the investigation was focusing on the failure of a heat exchanger and associated piping attached to the distillation tower, according to Rafael Moure-Eraso, chairman of the US Chemical Safety Board.

According to the Plasteurope.com database Polyglobe (www.polyglobe.net), the Williams subsidiary, oversees a plant with a 610,000 t/y of ethylene and another plant with a 27,000 t/y capacity for propylene. Once the extension is finished, the C2 capacity is planned for 885,000 t/y.