ExxonMobil and partner SABIC have decided to proceed with the construction of a chemical complex in San Patricio County, Texas, USA. The companies formed a joint venture last year – Gulf Coast Growth Ventures – with each holding a 50% stake.

The jv has received final environmental approval this month for the project, which will comprise an ethane steam cracker producing 1.8 million t/y ethylene, two PE units and a monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant. Capacities for the PE and MEG plants have not been disclosed.

Construction will begin in the third quarter of this year with start-up anticipated by 2022. Four contractors are leading the project’s construction: Wood Group; McDermott & Turner Industries; Chiyoda & Kiewit; and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries & Zachry Group.

“Building the world’s largest steam cracker, with state-of-the-art technology, on the doorstep of rapidly growing Permian production gives this project significant scale and feedstock advantages,” said ExxonMobil chairman and CEO Darren Woods.

According to a preliminary independent study conducted by Impact DataSource, the project should generate more than $22 billion in economic output during construction and $50 billion in economic benefits during the first six years of operation. ExxonMobil added that the project is expected to create more than 600 permanent jobs as well as 6,000 jobs during construction.

Gulf Coast Growth Ventures is the third jv between the two companies, but the first in the US. ExxonMobil and SABIC have worked with one another for more than 35 years. They have two jvs in Saudi Arabia – Kemya in Jubail and Yanpet in Yanbu.