Chevron Phillips Chemical concludes Sweeny ethylene expansion

Dec. 11, 2014
Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LP (CPCC) has completed installation of a furnace at its Sweeny petrochemical complex in Old Ocean, Tex., that will expand ethylene production by 200 million lb/year.

Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LP (CPCC) has completed installation of a furnace at its Sweeny petrochemical complex in Old Ocean, Tex., that will expand ethylene production by 200 million lb/year (OGJ Online, June 3, 2013).

The addition of the tenth furnace to ethylene unit 33 completes the Sweeny plant’s ethylene expansion project, which began in 2013, CPCC said on Dec. 11.

With the furnace now commissioned, the Sweeny complex has an ethylene production capacity of about 12 million lb/day, or 4.3 billion lb/year, the company said.

While completion of the Sweeny project marks a milestone for CPCC, it also represents the next increment of expansion to the company’s ethylene business, according to Dave Smith, vice-president of CPCC’s olefins and natural gas liquids division.

“We’re building toward the start-up of the US Gulf Coast petrochemicals project in 2017 and supporting incremental growth of our olefins derivative businesses,” Smith said.

CPCC’s Gulf Coast expansion project includes the construction of an ethane cracker at the company’s Cedar Bayou plant in Baytown, Tex., as well as two polyethylene units with capacities of 1.1 billion lb/year each at its Sweeny complex (OGJ Online, June 18, 2014; Apr. 8, 2014).

The company also recently announced it has undertaken a study to boost the Cedar Bayou plant’s production capacity of low-viscosity polyalphaolefins capacity to 58,000 tonnes/year from its current capacity of 48,000 tpy (OGJ Online, Nov. 7, 2014). If approved, the expansion project is targeted for completion in 2016, CPCC said.