Kuwait’s part state-owned petchems firm Equate announced 10 September that its MEGlobal subsidiary is set to begin testing a 750,000 t/y ethylene glycol plant at Oyster Creek, near Freeport, Texas. The plant is within a complex operated by Dow, which will provide ethylene feedstock. It was built by US contractor Fluor after FEED from Jacobs Engineering. Equate’s first and so far only venture into the US intends to capitalize on US shale-fueled ethane and avoid the politics-related delays that have dogged project development in Kuwait (MEES, 25 November 2016).
MEGlobal also operates three ethylene glycol plants with a combined capacity of 1.02mn t/y in Alberta, Canada (MEES, 8 February). Equate is a joint venture of Kuwaiti state petchems firm PIC (42.5%) with Dow (42.5%) and Kuwaiti investors Boubyan (9%) and Qurain (6%). PIC is also a partner with Canada’s Pembina in a 550,000 t/y polypropylene complex at Redwater in Alberta. The partners announced their final investment decision in February and are targeting plant start-up in 2023 (MEES, 8 February). (CONTINUED - 163 WORDS)