Posted on 08/01/2011 4:58:17 AM PDT by thackney
Chemical Week reported today that Formosa Plastics is planning to build a $1.5 billion chemical plant at its Point Comfort, Texas, complex.
The trade publication reported that Formosa Plastics Chairman Li Chih-tsun said that the ethylene plant would be completed in 2015. He said the unit would be located at the Point Comfort site to take advantage of the abundant natural gas available from the shale formation in South Texas.
Called ethylene crackers, these plants convert the ethane in natural gas into ethylene, an early step in the creation of plastics used in many everyday consumer products.
Formosa Plastics is based in Taiwan. Its United States branch is based in New Jersey.
Bill Harvey, a spokesman at the company’s Point Comfort location, said he could not confirm the report about the Formosa’s plans for a new unit there. He said the site had received no formal announcement about the project from its parent company.
A spokesman at Formosa’s Livingston, New Jersey headquarters could not be reached.
Good! It’s much smarter to use natural gas to produce ethylene than it is to just burn it.
Texas ranks near the bottom in government spending per citizen, and it relies on federal money much less than many other states, making it less reliant on the federal government. That was reflected in a recent report by Moody's Investor Services, a credit rating agency.
Texas has a AAA bond rating, making it one of the safest bets for investors and giving the state the low interest rates on the bonds it issues to raise money. Moody's placed the federal government and five other states on notice that if the debt ceiling is not raised, and the government defaults, they could lose their AAA rating and pay more in interest.
Moody's excluded Texas from the list of states facing a possible downgrade in its credit rating...
This is part of why Obama&Co *haaaate* Texas so. We show up policies like his as the failures they are.
What this article is referencing is the “richer” natural gas fields such as Eagle Ford that contain more of the heavier molecules like Ethane that need to be removed or at least significantly reduced before the natural gas is sent to the pipelines for distribution.
It is more of a by-product of the typical natural gas market, rather than a substitution.
A small amount of ethane can exist in Natural Gas without problems, but if it is too great, then the BTU content will be too high for the burner nozzles of most equipment.
Right across from Port Lavaca. Good place to get a job soon. As always, we WANT business like this to open here in Texas.
Related info if any are interested in more detail about ethane in natural gas:
Shale gas revolution in the US presents regulatory and infrastructure challenges
http://www.icis.com/Articles/2011/01/10/9423607/shale-gas-revolution-in-the-us-presents-regulatory-and-infrastructure.html
Processing Natural Gas
http://www.naturalgas.org/naturalgas/processing_ng.asp
Interesting. I believe CP Chem is also building another large ethylene cracker.
One more article for those interested in ethane in natural gas. This article is more specific to ethane and details the issues related to the Marcellus field.
Infrastructure Projects Connect Marcellus Shale To Ethane, NGL Markets
http://www.aogr.com/index.php/magazine/cover_story_archives/march_2011_cover_story1/
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/89/8930cover.html
Petrochemical makers with operations in the U.S. benefited from cheap raw materials resulting from the development of shale natural gas. This new gas source has shifted the center of gravity of the global petrochemical industry toward the U.S. again. Since the beginning of the year, Shell Chemicals, Dow Chemical, and Chevron Phillips Chemical all have announced ethylene cracker projects tied to shale.
Don’t you love it!
That's racist!
LOL!
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It IS interesting. As a layperson, I guess I always thought of 'natural gas' as being a single thing.
Realizing there are different components that make up that single thing is really quite fascinating.
Pres. Perry and Energy Sec. Palin
drilling, baby, drilling and...refining, baby, refining.
I believe there is already a Formosa Plant in Pt. Comfort...this must be another one?
Just like crude oil can vary from the light, sweet type of many Texas fields to the heavy, sour types in other locations, natural gas can be wet, dry, sweet, sour, rich in Natural Gas Liquids, etc.
The existing complex already has multiple plants. This is an additional plant.
All natural gas isn't created equal.
The best part is, they pay the land owner more the higher the BTU’s of the gas they get out from the ground.
Formosa has one of the worst safety records in the industry.
I literally know people who won’t work in their Gulf coast facility.
May be building a new one because existing operations have blown up once too often.
Wish I were kidding.
Multiple companies are adding ethane/ethylene capability in the region.
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