Ineos announces new world-scale alpha-olefins unit

Ineos Oligomers announced its plan to build a new world-scale linear alpha olefin (LAO) unit along the U.S. Gulf Coast.
According to CEO Bob Learman, the unit will have an initial capacity of 350,000 metric tons, which can be further expanded to more than 500,000 metric tons.
“Ineos Group already has a significant footprint on the Gulf so we have ready access to key resources. We have been working on this project for the past year and it is now ready to scale up for a new phase of activity,” Learman said.
The project is targeted for completion by the end of 2016.
Ineos is also evaluating incremental expansion opportunities at its Canadian site. “Our LAO unit in Joffre, Alberta was initially designed to be expandable by 50%,” said Karel Brabant, operations director. “Therefore, we have a number of opportunities to access additional capacity in capital efficient ways. The first step of this program is well underway with a project that will expand the unit’s capacity by 10%.”
This project will be completed by the end of first quarter 2014.
The expansion of Ineos’ LAO capacity will provide significant additional feedstock supply to support the anticipated growth of its poly alpha olefin (PAO) business due to lubricant reformulation activity to achieve better fuel economy and lower carbon emissions, Learman said.
Ineos, the world’s largest merchant supplier of PAO, has made incremental capacity additions to support its PAO business. In 2009, it built a new PAO train in Feluy, Belgium and more recently completed a 10% debottleneck of its facility in LaPorte, Texas, U.S.A. It will debottleneck Feluy and add an additional 15% to its current capacity.