Chevron Phillips Chemicals reaches FID on Cedar Bayou plant expansion

March 29, 2016
Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LP (CPCC) has reached final investment decision to expand the low-viscosity polyalphaolefins (PAO) capacity at its Cedar Bayou petrochemical complex in Baytown, Tex.

Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LP (CPCC) has reached final investment decision to expand the low-viscosity polyalphaolefins (PAO) capacity at its Cedar Bayou petrochemical complex in Baytown, Tex.

The expansion will boost PAO capacity at the site by 10,000 tonnes/year, or about 20%, to 58,000 tpy from its current capacity of 48,000 tpy, CPCC said.

Designed to enable CPCC to meet the increasing demand for high-performance lubricants in automotive and industrial applications as demand for higher energy efficiency and high-quality basestocks continues to grow, the PAO expansion also will improve process safety and overall unit efficiencies while reducing waste generation for the Cedar Bayou’s PAO unit, the company said.

Additional feedstocks for planned expansion project will be supplied by CPCC’s recent 100,000-tpy expansion of normal alpha olefins capacity at Cedar Bayou (OGJ Online, Dec. 11, 2014; Apr. 8, 2014).

Construction on the project will begin in April, with the expanded plant scheduled for startup by mid-2017, CPCC said.

FID on the PAO project at Cedar Bayou follows CPCC’s November 2014 announcement that it had undertaken a study for the proposed expansion, which at the time, was targeted for completion in 2016 (OGJ Online, Nov. 7, 2014).

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].