PETROCHEMICALS
Ethylene exports from the U.S. planned Enterprise and other firms are looking to build terminals to send the petrochemical building block overseas Thanks to cheap natural gas from shale, the hold 270,000 metric tons of ethylene. Last year, Enterprise opened an ethane U.S. has become a large exporter of ethane export terminal in Morgan’s Point with the as a feedstock for overseas ethylene makcapacity to move about 550 metric tons ers. As U.S. chemical projects start to come per hour. onstream later this year, At the moment, the the country will also Up and down U.S. doesn’t have a lot of grow as an exporter of U.S. exports of ethylene have ethylene export capabiliethylene derivatives seesawed in recent years. ty. The only such facility such as polyethylene. Thousands of metric tons is operated by Targa ReNow, U.S. compa200 180 sources in Galena Park, nies want to cultivate 160 also on the Houston a chemical commod140 Ship Channel. According ity that hasn’t been a 120 to the U.S. Census Busteady export business: 100 80 reau, the U.S. exported ethylene itself. 60 nearly 190,000 metric Energy services firm 40 tons of ethylene last Enterprise Products 20 year. In 2014, it exported Partners and the marine 0 2010 11 12 13 14 15 16 17a only 3,000 metric tons. liquefied gas carrier Enterprise isn’t the Navigator Holdings a Through May. Source: U.S. Census Bureau only company looking plan to build an ethto get into the ethylene export business. ylene export terminal at Enterprise’s MorOdfjell Terminals is considering a facility gan’s Point complex on the Houston Ship for its Houston Ship Channel location in Channel in Texas. Seabrook, Texas. The terminal will have the capacity Ethane is a model for what the ethylene to load 100 metric tons of ethylene onto export business could become. Ethane exships per hour and could be expanded ports have become big as European chemto 200 metric tons per hour. It will be ical makers such as Ineos and SABIC look connected to an ethylene storage facility for bargains in the U.S. ethane surplus. currently under construction that can
According to the Census Bureau, ethane exports climbed from zero in 2014 to 1.7 million metric tons last year, enough to support two large ethylene crackers. Those numbers include exports out of Philadelphia and pipeline exports of ethane into Canada. A. J. Teague, Enterprise’s CEO, says his firm’s new ethylene terminal will provide “critical market diversification” by giving chemical makers options beyond converting the ethylene into polyethylene resin for export. An ethylene terminal makes sense to Steve Lewandowski, vice president of olefins for the consulting group IHS Markit. Enterprise is already building an ethylene pipeline through Morgan’s Point, which has dock space available. The company, he says, will likely need to invest only in equipment to chill the ethylene and store it on-site. The facility should also have customers, Lewandowski says. China is home to many companies that make ethylene derivatives but aren’t integrated with a source of ethylene. As Chinese ethylene makers build their own derivative plants, feedstock is drying up for the nonintegrated players. “There are companies getting desperate to get ethylene supply,” he says. Lewandowski also sees a market in international companies that have an overhang of ethylene capacity in the U.S. and a deficit in Europe.—ALEX TULLO
BUSINESS
C R E D I T: A K ZO N O BE L ( B OT H )
AkzoNobel’s CEO steps down unexpectedly Ton Büchner has stepped down as CEO of AkzoNobel, the Dutch chemical and coatings giant, effective immediately because of health reasons. Thierry Vanlancker, 52, who was head of AkzoNobel’s chemical business, has been appointed the new CEO. Before joining AkzoNobel in 2016, Vanlancker, a chemical engineer and Belgian national, headed the fluoroproducts unit at Chemours, a DuPont spin-off. A successor to run AkzoNobel’s chemical business will be announced in due course, the firm says. Büchner spent five years as AkzoNobel’s CEO, during which time he made it leaner and more profitable, the company
says. Previously, he was CEO of Swiss industrial equipment maker Sulzer. “For me, this was an extraordinarily difficult decision to make, but my focus must now be on my health,” Büchner says. His
Büchner
Vanlancker
health problem was not specified. Within a year of becoming CEO in 2012, Büchner took several weeks off, citing fatigue. The sudden change in leadership comes at a time when AkzoNobel is planning a major strategy shift in which it will exit the chemical business through either a sale or share flotation by the second half of 2018. Vanlancker had been poised to be the CEO of the chemical business. Büchner’s leave comes just weeks after he successfully resisted three attempts by U.S. coatings giant PPG Industries to take over AkzoNobel. PPG had criticized his leadership and that of AkzoNobel Chairperson Antony Burgmans as it strove to acquire the Dutch company.—ALEX SCOTT JULY 24, 2017 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
11
