MOSCOW (MRC) -- McDermott International, Ltd has been selected by LACC, LLC, a joint venture between Westlake Chemical Corporation and Lotte Chemical Corporation, to provide engineering, procurement and construction for a seventh heater addition to its LACC Ethane Cracker Facility in Westlake, La, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.
Schematic image for seventh heater addition to LACC Ethane Cracker Facility in Westlake, La.
"We look forward to continuing our strong partnership with Westlake and Lotte Chemical through this latest contract award," said Mark Coscio, Senior Vice President for McDermott's North, Central and South America region. "Using McDermott's extensive experience in the petrochemical market, we will demonstrate our commitment to supporting a superior project delivery experience on behalf of our customers."
Engineering, procurement and construction project services will be led by McDermott's Houston engineering group with support from its Mexico City office. McDermott's preferred technology partner, Lummus Technology, will provide the heat transfer technology, SRT-III, central to the seventh heater addition.
The project will commence immediately and is expected to be completed in the fall of 2023.
As MRC reported earlier, Lotte Chemical Titan Holding (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), an affiliate of Lotte Chemical (Seoul, South Korea), announced that the group's ethane cracker and ethylene glycol (EG) plant at Lake Charles, Louisiana, commenced commercial operations in August, 2019. Lotte Chemical USA, a 40/60 joint venture (JV) between Lotte Chemical Titan and Lotte Chemical, holds the Lotte group's stakes in the plants. The USD3.1-billion ethane cracker is an 88/12 JV between Lotte Chemical USA and Axiall, a subsidiary of Westlake Chemical.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 953,400 tonnes in the first five months of 2021, which virtually corresponded to the same figure a year earlier. High denisty polyethylene (HDPE) shipments decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 607,8900 tonnes in January-May 2021, up by 33% year on year. Shipments of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas deliveries of PP random copolymers decreased.
Lotte is the first South Korean petrochemical company to enter the ethane-cracking business in North America using shale gas. Lotte Chemical operates naphtha crackers at Yeosu and Daesan, South Korea, and Lotte Chemical Titan operates a cracker at Pasir Gudang, Malaysia. Lotte says that the US cracker increases the group's overall ethylene capacity to 4.5 MMt/y, making it the seventh-biggest producer of ethylene worldwide.
Westlake Chemical Corporation is an international manufacturer and supplier of petrochemicals, polymers and building products with headquarters in Houston, Texas. The company's range of products includes: ethylene, polyethylene, styrene, propylene, chlor-alkali and derivative products, PVC suspension and specialty resins, PVC Compounds, and PVC building products including siding, pipe, fittings and specialty components, windows, fence, deck and film.
MRC