Sasol to launch feasibility study on possible ethane cracker in Louisiana
By Ben DuBose
Online Editor
The board of directors for Sasol has approved a feasibility study on a possible ethane cracker and ethylene derivatives complex in Lake Charles, Louisiana, the company said on Wednesday.
The complex would cost between $3.5 billion and $4.5 billion, according to Sasol, which noted that the study would be completed in the second half of the fiscal 2013 year.
Capacity would be between 1 million and 1.4 million tpy of ethylene.
“The rapid development of the shale gas industry in North America and the resulting decoupling of the crude oil and natural gas prices have created several opportunities for growth for Sasol in both fuels and chemicals,” the company said in a statement.
“In particular, the availability of significant volumes of natural gas liquids, and specifically ethane, has opened up opportunities in the ethane feedstock area for cracker-based chemicals.”
Sasol said it recently completed a pre-feasibility study into such opportunities.
“[The study] confirmed that a world-scale ethane cracker with certain downstream ethylene-derivative units at our Lake Charles site in Louisiana offers an attractive investment opportunity with a sustainable competitive advantage,” the company said.
The Sasol board said the advancement of the project to a feasibility study would allow it to assess in more detail the technical and commercial viability of a world-scale ethane cracker and the development of strategic partnerships.
Several energy companies, including Dow Chemical, Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem), Shell and Braskem, have announced or are considering plans to build new US crackers in coming years, largely due to cheap and available shale gas for use as feedstock.
Elsewhere in the petrochemical sector, Sasol also said on Wednesday that it has entered into discussions to potentially divest its stake in Iran-based joint venture Arya Sasol Polymers.
Arya is a joint venture between Sasol and Iran’s state-owned National Petrochemical Company (NPC). It includes a 1 million tpy ethylene cracker, a 300,000 tpy low-density polyethylene (LDPE) plant and a 300,000 tpy high-density PE (HDPE) plant.
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