Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical is studying plans for a two-phase $9.4-billion petrochemical complex in St. James Parish, Louisiana, on the US Gulf Coast, which would include at least one new cracker and several downstream polyolefins plants as well as production facilities for ethylene glycol and other petrochemical products.

For the proposed new mammoth Gulf project, the Asian group stands to receive an incentive package from the state of Louisiana that would include a $12 million grant to offset infrastructure costs to be paid out in four equal annual installments beginning in 2018. Other tax exemption incentives have been offered.

A final decision on the scope of the investment is expected by the middle of next year, when construction and development of the first phase would also begin. A second phase of construction would begin in 2022, if the entire project is approved. Some 1,200 jobs would be created.

If completed as currently envisaged, the Louisiana project would create one of the world’s largest single-site ethylene production complexes, encompassing 14 cracking furnaces, four PDH reactors, four steam boilers and associated equipment. At the same site, the company is building a 625,000 t/y LDPE plant, set for start-up in 2017.

Formosa Petrochemicals’ sister company, Formosa Plastics, is in the process of building a 1.15 million mt/year ethylene cracker at Point Comfort, Texas, also on the US Gulf Coast, scheduled to start up in 2016. This facility would be part of a multibillion-dollar expansion project at the site, where Formosa is also building a polypropylene plant and a propane dehydrogenation facility due on stream the same year, along with an 800,000 t/y light feed ethylene cracker and two LDPE plants.

“We believe strategic growth in petrochemicals in the future will be in the US, especially in Louisiana,” Formosa Chairman Bao-Lang Chen said in a statement. “It is the right and perfect location for our company’s next development base,” he added.