ExxonMobil has shed some light on its tentative plans to build new production units at its complex in Baytown, Texas. A final decision is to be made in the second half of 2019.

One of the plants would produce about 400,000 t/y of a semi-crystalline copolymer of propylene and ethylene, which the Houston-headquartered group markets under the name Vistamaxx. The other would produce 350,000t t/y of linear alpha olefins (LAO).

Should the investment proceed, the plants could start up in late 2021.

In July, the multinational oil, petrochemicals and energy group commissioned a new 1.5 million t/y ethane cracker at Baytown, which feeds twin 650,000 t/y HDPE plants lines at the neighboring Mont Belvieu site.

ExxonMobil’s Growing the Gulf initiative announced in 2013 will see spending of  $20 bn on altogether 11 projects in the region, of which output is primarily intended for export. The group is also partnering with Saudi Arabia’s SABIC on a $10 billion chemicals and plastics complex north of Corpus Christi, Texas.

Separately, the US government recently dropped a two-year investigation into how Exxon Mobil factors climate-change regulations into its calculations of the value of its assets.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said it would not recommend an enforcement action against the company, as Exxon Mobil cooperated with the inquiry; however, it added that the decision should not be construed as an exoneration, leaving open the possibility of further future action.

Exxon still faces separate investigations in New York and Massachusetts into whether it misled investors and the public about its knowledge of climate change and how the issue could affect its business.