Construction wraps on Sasol’s Louisiana petchem complex

Petrotahlil:The joint venture of Fluor Corp. and TechnipFMC PLC has completed delivery of engineering, procurement, and construction management services on Sasol Ltd.’s long-planned Lake Charles Chemicals Project (LCCP), an integrated ethane cracker and downstream derivatives in Westlake, La., near Lake Charles.

While all units have been transitioned to Sasol except for the low-density polyethylene (LDPE) unit—which will be handed over by the end of March—the JV will continue to assist the Sasol team with remaining activities by working with Sasol in parallel on transition plans for each unit and system, Fluor said.

The JV team will also assist in performance testing for the complex, the service company said.

Wrap of construction activities on the project follows start of production from the LCCP complex’s linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) unit earlier this year, as well as commissioning of the steam system and all utilities to support early process units at the complex in second-half 2018

Alongside its 1.5 million-tonne/year ethane cracker, the $11.6-11.8-billion LCCP—once fully completed—will include six downstream chemical plants, including:

• Two large polymers plants capable of produced a combined 900,000 tpy of LDPE and LLDPE.

• A 300,000-tpy ethylene oxide-ethylene glycol (EO-EG) plant.

• A 100,000-tpy exthoxylation unit.

• A 173,000-tpy Ziegler alcohols

plant, which will include a 30,000-tpy Guerbet alcohols unit and 30,000-tpy alumina unit.

Based on its most recent projections, Sasol said the timeline for LCCP’s remaining units to achieve beneficial operation has been revised as follows:

• Ethane cracker: July (from February).

• EO-EG unit: June (from February).

• LDPE unit: August (from March).

• Zeigler alcohols unit: November.

• Guerbet alcohols unit: January 2020.

• Ethoxylation unit: December.