World-leading PET producer Indorama Ventures (IVL, Bangkok / Thailand; www.indorama.net) has acquired a mothballed ethylene cracker at Carlyss, Louisiana / USA, near Lake Charles, and plans to revamp it to run on both ethane and propane feedstock. Seller is Occidental Petroleum (Los Angeles / California; www.oxy.com), one of three partners (including Milennium) in the defunct Equistar joint venture, which today is a subsidiary of LyondellBasell (Rotterdam / The Netherlands; www.lyondellbasell.com).

The Indorama group plans to invest USD 175m in the project, in which IVL will own 76% and sister company, Singapore-based Indorama Corporation (IRC) the remaining 24%. IRC is said to have ‘”significant” experience in cracking. The revamped facility is expected to start up by the end of 2017 with planned capacity of 370,000 t/y of ethylene and 30,000 t/y of propylene. Louisiana’s state government has pledged investment aid. CEO Aloke Lohia said the revamp will make the Indorama group the first Thai company to take advantage of the US shale gas boom, ahead of greenfield crackers under construction.

The integration of its business with olefins will provide the Indorama group with “a significant long term cost advantage across its North American footprint,” Lohia noted in announcing the Louisiana plans. Indorama is already a major US producer of ethylene derivatives such as purified ethylene oxide (PEO) and monoethylene glycol (MEG), with sites in Texas, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Earlier this year, it acquired a 600,000 t/y PTA plant with the purchase of Canadian producer Cepsa Chimie Montreal – see Plasteurope.com of 25.03.2015.