THE WOODLANDS, Texas (AP) — Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. will build a plant capable of producing up to 250,000 metric tons of a compound used to make everything from detergent bottles and food and beverage containers, to film and pipes.
Construction at the company's complex in Baytown, Texas, is expected to begin in the first half of this year. Production of the compound, 1-hexene, is slated to start in the first quarter of 2014, the company said Monday.
Chevron Phillips said the plant will be built with proprietary technology for 1-hexene that is already in use at a facility in Qatar, and will soon be put in place at a plant in Saudi Arabia. The company says the technology enables the production of exceptionally pure 1-hexene from ethylene.
Chevron Phillips Chemical was formed in 2000 when Chevron Corp. and Phillips Petroleum Co., now ConocoPhillips, combined their worldwide petrochemical businesses.