Ineos Oligomers has announced plans to build a new plant for linear alpha olefins (LAO) on the U.S. Gulf coast. Set to start up in 2016, the facility will have initial capacity of 350,000 t/y but, like similar Ineos units, it is designed to be expanded by an additional 50%. According to CEO Bob Learman, output eventually could exceed 500,000 t/y. "Ineos group already has a significant footprint on the Gulf, so we have ready access to key resources," he added.

The U.S. subsidiary of the Swiss-based group also is "evaluating opportunities" for expanding its LAO plant in Joffre, Alberta, Canada, another facility designed for a 50% capacity increase, In a first expansion stage, due on stream at the end of the 2014 first quarter, capacity will be lifted by 10%.

With the expansion of LAO capacity, "significant" additional feedstock will become available to support the expected growth of Ineos Oligomers' polyalphaolefins (PAO) business, which the company said has proved resilient despite the downturn in the European and Asian automotive industry,

The production unit at La Porte, Texas, in the U.S. recently was debottlenecked, adding 10% more capacity. At Feluy, Belgium, a 15% debottleneck of the PAO train at Feluy / Belgium is in the engineering stage.

Joe Walton, business director of Ineos Oligomers, said the company's market and technology focus on polyethylene copolymers in combination with its access to "advantaged ethylene economics" on the Gulf coast gives rise to "attractive opportunities."

Activity on the Gulf is gearing up as access to ethane feedstock derived from shale gas adds to U.S. producers' advantage. Earlier this year, Dow Chemical said it had signed an initial agreement to supply ethylene from its new cracker to an LAO plant to be built by a joint venture of Idemitsu and Mitsui of Japan and set to go on stream in 2016. (dw)