Equistar Chemicals Makes its First Capital Decisions

Born earlier this month as the joint venture of Lyondell Petrochemical and Millennium Chemicals, Equistar (Houston) has now chosen Bechtel Corp. as primary engineering contractor for a 480-million-lb/yr expansion of its Matagorda, Texas, HDPE facility. It has also chosen S&B Engineers & Construction, Ltd. for a debottlenecking project at its Victoria, Texas complex.

The Matagorda project will be completed in the third quarter of 1998. The Victoria work, which will add 125 million lb/yr of HDPE capacity, will take place during 1998. Together they will bring Equistar's HDPE capacity to nearly 4 billion lb/yr, with 1.53 billion lb/yr at Matagorda alone. The new HDPE capacity at this plant will use Nissan technology, which is currently installed in three existing lines there. The system features a multiple-reactor, bi-modal product capability.

"The investment in additional HDPE capacity will allow us to supply the rapidly growing film market, where we are a strong participant with both HDPE and LDPE/LLDPE," says Dan Smith, CEO. "As the largest producer of HMW-HDPE film resins, Equistar is committed to building on its leading HMW-HDPE film resin capacity to support the growing needs of our customers." Major markets include grocery and merchandise carry-out bags, trash bags, blow-molding and pipe extrusion.