Chexpress - May 1, 2012

North America

Ethylene Plant

Dow Chemical Co. will build an ethylene plant in Texas that will employ as many as 2,000 workers. The plant is scheduled to open in 2017. It will be built at a Dow site in Freeport, Texas. The facility will use ethane and other natural-gas liquids to make ethylene, a key plastics ingredient. It will cost $1.7 billion.

Workforce Expansion

Novo Nordisk plans to expand its U.S. workforce this year by nearly 15 percent. This expansion would add up to about 615 positions. The insulin producer will recruit for new positions across the United States to support sales and medical operations. It will look for diabetes educators, medical liaisons and management positions. The company also will look to fill positions at its new type 1 diabetes research center in Seattle and a manufacturing plant in North Carolina.

Contract

A subsidiary of Foster Wheeler AG’s Global Engineering and Construction Group has been awarded an owner’s engineer contract for a new LNG liquefaction project that will be located in Hackberry, Louisiana. The contract was awarded by Cameron LNG LLC, an affiliate of Sempra Energy. Cameron plans to export up to 12 million tons/year of LNG. Foster Wheeler’s scope of work includes technical assistance for project development, the execution of front-end engineering to support permit applications to the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, development of technical specifications and invitation to bid packages for engineering, procurement and construction activities, and technical reviews. The work will also include integration with existing Cameron LNG facilities and may includes additional scopes of work as the project develops.

World

Petrochemical Production

UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, has had its UOP C3 and C4 Oleflex processes selected by China’s Shandong Chambroad Petrochemicals Co. to produce key petrochemicals. The plant will be the first in China, and only the second in the world, to combine both processes, which are used to produce propylene and isobutylene, respectively. The new units are expected to start up in 2014. They will produce 133,000 metric tons of propylene and 87,000 metric tons of isobutylene annually in Binzhou City, China. UOP will provide the engineering design, technology licensing, catalysts, adsorbents, equipment, staff training and technical service for the project.

New Plant

Infineum, a joint venture between ExxonMobil and Shell, has broken ground on a new plant on Jurong Island, Singapore. The $150 million plant will make calcium salicylate. The plant is expected to be fully operational in the fourth quarter of next year and will create about 50 jobs.

Polypropylene Production

SOCAR plans by 2014 to launch polypropylene and low density polyethylene production. The company is working with the Ministry of Economic Development of Azerbaijan on a project to create a new park. The new facility will allow SOCAR to provide raw material to the new chemical industrial park to be established in Sumgayit.