Ineos has chosen Antwerp as the site for its proposed gas cracker and propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant.

The company announced last July that it would build a 1.25 million t/y cracker and a 750,000 t/y PDH plant in northwest Europe, taking advantage of the US shale-derived gas that it ships across the Atlantic to its plants in Scotland and Norway.

Investment costs for the facilitiesare now estimated at €3 billion, rather than the €2.7 billion mentioned at the time of the announcement, representing Ineos’s biggest capital spend to date.

The plants will be built on Ineos’s existing site at Lillo in Antwerp’s harbor and on neighboring land, allowing them to be integrated with existing logistics and pipeline connections to several of the company’s derivative facilities in the region. The facilities are expected to be operational by 2024.

Ineos already has a major presence in Belgium, operating nine manufacturing sites, six of which are located in Antwerp, along with three research and technology centers.

John McNally, CEO of the project, commented: “The selection of Antwerp as a location for these new assets is a significant step forward for the development of this project. This decision builds upon our long-standing relationship with the Port of Antwerp, the City of Antwerp and the governments of Flanders and Belgium.”

Jacques Vandermeiren, CEO of the Antwerp Port Authority, added: “It once more demonstrates that we as the largest integrated chemical cluster in Europe are very attractive to international investors. This mega-investment brings the total amount of new capital expenditure that we have attracted to Antwerp over the past year to more than €5 billion.”