LyondellBasell has announced that Sonatrach Total Entreprise Polymeres (STEP), a joint venture between Algerian energy company Sonatrach and French oil, gas and chemicals group Total, has chosen Spheripol technology for a PP plant to be built in Arzew, Oran province, Algeria.

Front end engineering and design work on the 550,000 t/y unit was scheduled to start in the summer of 2018. It is not known when the plant is due to go into operation. Output will primarily meet demand locally and in the Mediterranean area.

Jim Seward, LyondellBasell’s vice president of technology business and sustainability, said the Spheripol technology allows its customers to “enhance and significantly diversify their PP product portfolio.”

The Arzew plant will begin operation using an Avant Ziegler Natta catalyst. This family of catalysts can produce homopolymers, random and heterophasic copolymers and be used in gas-phase, slurry and bulk technologies.