After receiving all regulatory approvals, ExxonMobil Chemical has begun construction of its new 1.5 million t/y ethane cracker project and related plastics facilities in Baytown and nearby Mont Belvieu, Texas.

The cracker will supply ethylene for two new 650,000 t/y polyethylene plants, among other facilities.

Start-up of the complex is now scheduled for 2017. Earlier plans called for start-up in 2016 but the project was delayed by a dispute with US environmental group Sierra Club, which contended that the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) abused its discretion under the Clean Air Act when approving the facility without carbon capture and sequestration as an add-on control technology.

The petrochemical group won the case, as the EPA agreed this would be too costly.

Contracts have been awarded to Linde Engineering North America and Bechtel to build olefin recovery units at the cracker and to Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding and Huerty Petrochem for construction of the new olefins furnaces.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will build the two PE lines at Mont Belvieu, with Jacobs Engineering overseeing what ExxonMobil called "enabling works and interconnections at both locations."

The new facilities are being realized thanks to "abundant, affordable supplies of US natural gas for energy and chemical feedstock," said Steve Pryor, president of ExxonMobil Chemical.

"Shale development has provided US chemical producers a double benefit as an energy source and as a key raw material to make plastics and other essential products, creating jobs and economic activity across the value chain," he said.