BASF has selected Freeport, Texas, as the potential site for its planned 475,000 t/y world-scale methane-to-propylene complex on the US Gulf Coast.

The facility will use Air Liquide's Lurgi MegaMethanol and Methanol-to-Propylene (MTP) technologies, and the French gases producer will provide basic engineering services for the complex.

The project, BASF's largest single-plant investment to date, is subject to final approval in 2016 by the German group's managing board.

The Freeport site was founded in 1958 as the first BASF manufacturing facility outside of Europe. With more than 800 full-time employees, it is one of two of the German group's two integrated sites in North America.

On-purpose production of propylene to supply its North American operations would allow BASF to take advantage of low gas prices resulting from US shale gas production, the group said, adding that the investment would further strengthen its backward integration into propylene and grow its propylene-based downstream activities, leading to a stronger market position in North America.