Executives and board members from The Dow Chemical Company, EQUATE Petrochemical Co. and Kuwait Petroleum Corp. participate in the ribbon-cutting ceremony for MEGlobal's Oyster Creek site in Texas.
Executives from EQUATE Petrochemical Co., The Dow Chemical Company and Kuwait Petroleum Corp. were recently joined by other industry leaders for the ribbon-cutting celebration inaugurating EQUATE's new MEGlobal Oyster Creek ethylene glycol manufacturing facility.
The new plant occupies 110 acres in Oyster Creek, Texas, located conveniently close to Dow's new cracker, which will supply the facility with ethylene. Close proximity to Dow's marine terminal and Port Freeport made the Oyster Creek location even more attractive to EQUATE.
"Four years ago, when the partners and the owners entrusted us with $2 billion of their money and asked us to build a glycol plant, it was quite a major responsibility," said Dr. Ramesh Ramachandran, president and CEO of EQUATE. "But now we can say, 'Yes, we have delivered it under budget and ahead of schedule.'"
Clarence Stadlweiser, MEGlobal global operations excellence director, observed that typically, projects of this size would take 29 months to complete.
"But we brought ours in at 21 months. We would have been well into 2020 had we followed the norm," Stadlweiser said, adding that Brazoria County is a very business-friendly and growth-oriented environment.
"It's certainly very attractive for us to come here ⦠to build a world-scale, 750,000-metric-ton glycol plant. It also has an ample supply of very skilled and talented resources that we can draw on -- that was a big plus, first and foremost," Stadlweiser said. "With the shale gas revolution, obviously the Gulf Coast is a very attractive place to produce monoethylene glycol."
Stadlweiser also touted the region's "excellent access to shipping routes through the Gulf."
Jim Fitterling, CEO of Dow Chemical, said MEGlobal's Oyster Creek project will be a benchmark on the U.S. Gulf Coast for the petrochemical industry.
"It's tied to [Dow Chemical's] 2-million- ton ethane cracker project, the 'Texas- 9,'" Fitterling continued. "So, hands down, it's in a cost-competitive position."
The new MEGlobal Oyster Creek plant occupies 110 acres in Oyster Creek, Texas.
Answering global demand
The plant is fitted with the capacity for 750,000 metric tons annually of ethylene glycol, a prime ingredient in the manufacture of polyester fibers, automotive fluids, construction materials and water bottles. The site was conceived in 2015 by EQUATE leaders in response to increasing global demand in this market.
"Ethylene glycol's demand has grown steadily, and that's why you have such need for a plant like here at Oyster Creek," said Jim Ashworth, commercial director, Americas, and director of contract and procurement for MEGlobal Americas' Oyster Creek project. "If you got up this morning and you ate or drank something, if you put on some clothing, and if you got in a car and drove on a highway, you used ethylene glycol. It is truly a global product used by consumers worldwide."
Scott Daigle, MEGlobal Oyster Creek site leader, said the site is expected to create 85 new full-time and contract jobs on a long-term basis, plus as many as 2,000 construction jobs at peak. The site will also bring an estimated $24 million per year of local economic investment, he said.
"This is an important milestone in EQUATE history, adding manufacturing capacity on the U.S. Gulf Coast to satisfy customer needs in the region. EQUATE's glycol footprint in the Americas is as large as that in Kuwait," concluded Naser Al-Dousari, EQUATE's executive vice president. "The community in Texas has been very welcoming to this investment, and we look forward to being a part of this region."
For more information, visit www.meglobal.biz, www.dow.com or www.equate.com.
