Joining a surge of petrochemical companies looking to capitalize on abundant supplies of cheap natural gas, Westlake Chemical Corp. announced plans for a $330 million expansion of its complex in Lake Charles, La. producing ethylene, a key building block for plastics.
Most of the ethylene produced at Westlake’s plant is used by the company to produce higher-value chemical products, including polyethylene, a plastic most commonly used in packaging, and styrene, used to make rubber, plastic, insulation, fiberglass, pipes and automobile parts.
The Houston-based petrochemical manufacturer plans to expand the plant’s ethylene capacity to approximately 250 million pounds per year, the company announced.
The expansion should be finished by late 2015 or early 2016 and is expected to add 25 new jobs to the plant’s existing workforce of 480 permanent employees and 115 contractors.
Construction will generate about 1,000 jobs at its peak, the company said. Westlake did not say when construction is expected to begin.
“Westlake Chemical has enjoyed a long and rewarding relationship with Louisiana since our inception in Lake Charles in 1986,” CEO Albert Chao said in a prepared statement. “Since then, we have seen our footprint grow substantially. Our Louisiana operations are a vital hub for the enterprise and we look forward to a continued beneficial partnership in the future.”
Several petrochemical companies have announced similar projects along the Gulf Coast in the wake of a U.S. shale boom that has unleashed vast quantities of natural gas and depressed prices for the feedstock.
Dow Chemical in June started construction on a $1.7 billion plant in Freeport with the capacity to make 1.5 million tons of ethylene per year. The facility expects to begin production in 2017.
Chevron Phillips Chemical last year said it would expand ethylene production by 200 million pounds with the construction of a tenth furnace at its Sweeny complex.
Occidental Petroleum Corp. also applied to build an ethylene plant in Ingleside near Corpus Christi, with the capacity to produce 1.2 billion pounds per year of ethylene.
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