New Baystar cracker in Texas starting up: sources

Total's new joint-venture 1 million mt/year cracker in Texas was progressing with its lengthy startup June 11 after construction was completed in the first quarter of 2021, according to a flaring notice on a community hotline and sources familiar with company operations.

The Baystar cracker in Port Arthur, a joint venture of France's Total and Austria's Borealis, reported flaring late June 10 to the Southeast Texas Alerting Network, a community hotline intended to alert nearby residents of routing flaring, upsets and other issues affecting petrochemical plants and refineries.

"Operations require flaring," the notice said. Flaring, or burning of excess gases, is routine during plant startups.

The cracker will supply Total and Borealis' joint-venture 400,000 mt/year polyethylene plant near the mouth of the Houston Ship Channel, and an adjacent 625,000 mt/year PE unit under construction with startup expected in Q1 2022.

A source familiar with Baystar's operations confirmed June 11 that the startup process was ongoing, with production expected in 3Q 2021, "which is their original announcement – no game change here."

Another source familiar with company operations said Total had just begun introducing feedstock to the cracker, which is the first step in a new plant startup.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Baystar joint venture, which originally included Canada's NOVA Chemicals, broke ground on the new cracker in 2018, and construction began on the new PE unit in 2019.

Borealis bought NOVA's interest in the joint venture in 2020.

The US now has about 40 million mt/year of ethylene capacity, and 10.68 million mt/year, or more than one-fourth, has been added since 2017.

The new Baystar cracker is part of 8.3 million mt/year of additional ethylene capacity under construction or planned for 2021 and beyond, according to company announcements.