US chemical companies with plants in southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas were preparing for the onslaught of two US Gulf storms on Aug. 24, with some beginning shutdowns of operations.
Motiva Enterprises said in a regulatory filing Aug. 24 that the company was shutting down its 635,000 mt/year mixed-feed merchant cracker in Port Arthur, Texas, where residents were under a mandatory evacuation order.
Indorama Ventures also disclosed to a southeast Texas community hotline that the company was beginning to shut down all operating units at its Port Neches, Texas, facilities, which include including a 235,867 mt/year mixed-feed cracker; a 1 million mt/year ethylene oxide/monoethylene glycol unit; and a propylene oxide/methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) plant, which also produces surfactants and amines.
According to the National Hurricane Center, Tropical Storm Marco was expected to come ashore near New Orleans on Aug. 24 and weaken to a tropical depression while turning west toward Texas.
Tropical Storm Laura, however, was expected to reach hurricane strength before making landfall near Cameron in southwest Louisiana late Aug. 26 or early Aug. 27. The projected path had Laura headed straight for Lake Charles, home to multiple refineries and chemical complexes, and just 50 miles or so east of Port Arthur and Beaumont, Texas, where other large chemical complexes operate.
US spot ethylene prices rose on Aug. 24 as the storms approached. The front-month FD Mont Belvieu marker gained 2 cents/lb to be assessed at 22.25 cents/lb, while the FD Choctaw marker rose 3 cents/lb to 21 cents/lb, S&P Global Platts data showed.
US Gulf Coast spot MTBE prices moved higher amid an uptick in RBOB futures tied to concerns related to the storms. Spot MTBE prices were assessed at 129.70 cents/gal, up 8.45 cents on the day with trades heard done at 127.25 and 130.75 cents/gal.
Sasol's $12.9 billion complex in Laura's path
Sasol's new $12.9 billion chemical complex in Lake Charles includes a 1.5 million mt/year cracker, a 470,000 mt/year linear low density polyethylene plant and a 380,000 mt/year ethylene oxide/monoethylene glycol plant. It also includes a new 420,000 mt/year low density PE plant slated to start up in September.
Westlake Chemical also has extensive operations in Lake Charles. Those include three chlor alkali plants with a combined capacity of 1.27 million mt/year of chlorine and 1.36 million mt/year of caustic soda; two vinyl chloride monomer plants with a combined capacity of 952,543 mt/year; two crackers with a combined capacity of 1.19 million mt/year; 200,000 mt/year of LLDPE capacity; and a 386,000 mt/year LDPE plant.
Westlake did not respond to a request for comment, but a source familiar with company operations said officials were monitoring the storms to gauge shutdown needs. Sasol did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Lake Charles Pilots suspended inbound vessel traffic the morning of Aug. 24 and expected to suspend outbound traffic as well by early evening. The Sabine Pilots, which oversee vessel traffic in and out of the Sabine-Neches Waterway, which serves Port Arthur and Beaumont, suspended inbound traffic on Aug. 23 and expected to do the same for outbound vessels on Aug. 25.
ExxonMobil spokeswoman Sarah Nordin said the company was monitoring the storms and making preparations for their arrivals, but operations were normal on Aug. 24.
ExxonMobil's Beaumont complex includes an 826,000 mt/year cracker and a 650,000 mt/year LLDPE plant.
Total's refining and chemical complex in Port Arthur includes a 1 million mt/year joint-venture cracker with BASF. The company also is building a new 1 million mt/year cracker as part of a joint venture with Borealis.
Total spokeswoman Marie Maitre said via email that the company was implementing storm preparation plans while monitoring "this dynamic situation."
Other major chemical operations were further from Laura's center, from those along the Houston Ship Channel, the second-largest petrochemical port in the world behind Rotterdam, to plants along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans in Louisiana.
Those include Dow Chemical's operations in Plaquemine, with two crackers that have a cumulative capacity of 1.2 million mt/year; and NOVA Chemicals' merchant 925,000 mt/year cracker in Geismar.
Dow spokeswoman Ashley Mendoza said in an email that Dow's Plaquemine site and others along the US Gulf Coast were activating storm plans, and had seen no impact as of Aug. 24.
"We will continue to monitor Tropical Storm Laura as it moves closer to the Gulf Coast later this week and advance our preparations as needed," she said.
LyondellBasell also was preparing for the storms at its operations in La Porte and Channelview, Texas, a spokeswoman said.
