ExxonMobil-Sabic Texas JV to include 1.3 MMty PE plant

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The two-train polyethylene (PE) plant to be built near Corpus Christi, Texas, by a joint venture (JV) between ExxonMobil and Sabic will have a total capacity of 1.3 million metric tons/year (MMt/y), according to an announcement today by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), one of the contractors on the project. Assuming the two PE trains are of equal size, each would have 650,000 metric tons/year of production capacity, putting them among the largest ever built. Four linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) plants that MHI built for ExxonMobil at Singapore in 2011 and Mont Belvieu, Texas, in 2017 have a capacity of 650,000 metric tons/year, as does ExxonMobil's new LLDPE line in Beaumont, Texas, which is slated for start-up during the second half, and an LLDPE line in Jamnagar, India, that Reliance Industries started up in 2017. ExxonMobil and Sabic announced their decision to proceed with the project, which will include a 1.8-MMt/y ethylene plant and a 1.1-MMt/y ethylene glycol plant, earlier this month. Contractor Zachry Group subsequently reported that it and partner MHI had been chosen to build the PE plant.