-OxyChem and Mexichem on Wednesday hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for their $1 billion joint venture ethylene cracker in Ingleside, Texas. Ingleside Ethylene is expected to be completed in 2017 and will have production capacity of 1.2 billion pounds of ethylene per year. The project is expected to create approximately 1,700 jobs during construction and more than 150 permanent jobs.
-Chevron Phillips Chemical plans to build a polyethylene pilot plant at its research and technology facility in Bartlesville, Okla. The plant will incorporate Chevron Phillips’ MarTECH loop slurry process for polyethylene production and MarTECH advanced dual loop technology. Construction will begin next year and the facility is expected to be complete in 2017.
-Enbridge on Tuesday shut down its Line 4 pipe at the Regina terminal in Saskatchewan after 1,350 barrels of oil spilled at an on-site pumping station. Via Bloomberg, Enbridge is excavating the line around a pumphouse, but it is not yet known how long the repairs will take. Analysts believe an extended outage would affect Canadian oil producers more than U.S. refiners. Refineries in the Midwest could tap more supplies from the Gulf Coast in lieu of Canadian oil.
-Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Wednesday proposed a cap-and-trade program that would help the state meet greenhouse gas emission targets set in 2008. Via the Associated Press, the proposal is similar to the cap-and-trade system California launched nearly three years ago. The AP notes that Washington’s senate will next year be under the control of a Republican majority that has shown strong resistance to cap-and-trade. Inslee believes, however, that legislators may be more willing to tax emissions than voters in order to close a looming $2 billion budget gap.
-Abigail Hopper, who currently heads the Maryland Energy Administration, will become director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Jan. 5. She will succeed interim director Walter Cruickshank, who has held the position since Tommy Beaudreau became chief of staff to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell in May. Hopper has an extensive background in renewable energy, a fact that concerns some in the offshore energy industry.
