By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Apr. 19 -- Petrochemical firms Braskem SA of Brazil and Pequiven of Venezuela have signed an agreement of intent to form two joint ventures to develop the Jose Complex petrochemical project in Venezuela. The project will cost an estimated $2.5 billion.
One of the joint ventures will manage the construction of a 1.3 million tonne/year ethane cracker that will use gas as its primary feedstock. The cracker ethane production will be integrated into the production of 1.1 million tpy of polyethylene and other products.
The second joint venture will construct a 450,000 tpy polypropylene (PP) plant, which originally was to be built in the El Tablazo complex, Braskem previously reported.
The PP unit will begin operating at the end of 2009, while the ethane cracker and other units will start up in the second half of 2011.
Braskem and Pequiven will use company capital to finance about 30% of the project cost. To cover the remaining 70%, the projects' assets will be tendered with an exclusive warranty to multilateral export credit agencies, development banks, and private banks.
Along with this project, Pequiven plans to build a propane dehydrogenation unit for production of 465,000 tpy of propene, and Petroleos de Venezuela SA unit PDVSA Gás will build units to extract 1.8 million tpy of ethane. Pequiven said it will also make complementary investments in the Jose Complex infrastructure, increasing the total value of investments to more than $5 billion.