Indorama Ventures commissions Louisiana ethane cracker

Feb. 3, 2020
Indorama Ventures Olefins LLC has started commercial operations at its previously announced project to renovate and restart a dormant ethane cracker in Westlake, La., just west of Lake Charles in Calcasieu Parish.

Indorama Ventures Olefins LLC (IVO), an indirect subsidiary of Thailand’s Indorama Ventures PCL (IVP), Bangkok, has started commercial operations at its previously announced project to renovate and restart a dormant ethane cracker in Westlake, La., just west of Lake Charles in Calcasieu Parish (OGJ Online, Sept. 25, 2015).

The 440,000-tonne/year cracker entered commercial operation on Jan. 31, IVP said on Feb. 3.

To date, the restarted plant already has achieved an operating rate of more than 80%, said Tony Barre, IVO’s site director.

Integrated with US Gulf Coast ethylene pipeline infrastructure to enable efficient distribution, the Westlake plant will provide long-term captive ethylene supplies to Indorama Ventures Oxide and Glycols’s (IVOG) plant in Clear Lake, Tex., as well as IVL’s recently acquired integrated ethylene oxide-propylene oxide and derivatives assets in Port Neches, Tex., which the operator completed purchase of from Huntsman Corp. in early January, according to an IVL filing with the Stock Exchange of Thailand on Jan. 6.

Nearly 80% of the plant’s ethylene capacity will provide captive supply specifically to IVOG’s Clear Lake plant, according to IVL’s website.

Originally planned for commissioning in late 2017 and mechanically completed in May 2019, the refurbished cracker—jointly owned by IVP (76%) and Singapore-based Indorama Corp. (24%)—is designed to process attractively priced ethane and propane feedstock from US shale to produce about ethylene and propylene (OGJ Online, May 6, 2019).