Project Profile
Location: La Porte, Houston, USA
Capacity: 800 million lb/year
Area: 2.22 Km2
Start-up Year: 2014 (construction of polyethylene plant - 2017)
The La Porte Complex is on the south shore of the Houston Ship Channel in the Battleground Industrial District near the San Jacinto Monument, USA. The complex occupies 549 acres (2.22 square kilometres) and is bisected by Miller Cut-Off Road. The complex has two barge docks on the channel.
The La Porte Complex comprises two companies of LyondellBasell. The Equistar Chemicals business produces ethylene, propylene, linear low-density polyethylene and low-density polyethylene. LyondellBasell planned to expand its ethylene plant in La Porte, Texas in USA. The project had been pushed back the start-up of expanded production, until later in 2014. The company expected to begin production from its 800 million lb/year La Porte ethylene during third quarter of 2014. The revised timeline for the newly expanded plant project, which was scheduled to begin production in 3Q 2014 resulted from a delay in the completion of extensive scheduled maintenance at the La Porte plant during the second quarter of 2014.
The Acetyls business includes an integrated chain of manufacturing units producing acetic acid and vinylacetate monomer (VAM). VAM process combines Acetic Acid with ethylene and oxygen to produceVAM. Acetic Acid is produced meeting food grade requirements for shipping within the food industry. Other applications include terephthalic acid (used in polyester for textiles and PET for plastic bottles), industrial solvents and other chemicals. Vinyl acetate monomer is a chemical building block used to manufacture a variety of products, including water-based paints, adhesives, textile and paper coatings.
Operators:
LyondellBasell: Operator with 100% interest