Indorama Ventures (IVL, Bangkok / Thailand; www.indoramaventures.com) has received an air permit from authorities in the US state of Louisiana, allowing it to proceed with the revamping of the mothballed ethylene cracker at Carlyss, Louisiana / USA, near Lake Charles, acquired last year from Occidental Petroleum (Los Angeles / California; www.oxy.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 29.09.2015. The Thai group, the world’s leading producer of PET, is revamping the facility to run on both ethane and propane feedstock, with annual output of 370,000 t/y of ethylene and 30,000 t/y of propylene foreseen. The air permit is the main environmental permit required for operation.

Indorama said it is now a month ahead of its original timetable for completing the conversion process. In June of this year, the project received a water permit, allowing the facility to discharge liquid effluent through its wastewater treatment plant. Engineering activities related to debottlenecking also have been completed, and all major long-lead-time equipment has been ordered, the PET giant said. With mechanical completion expected in the third quarter of 2017 as previously announced, start-up is targeted for the year’s fourth quarter.

Ethylene produced by its US Gulf Coast cracker will feed Indorama’s production of PET feedstock MEG at sites in the states of Texas, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. When the project is complete, the group expects to become the top vertically-integrated PET player in North America. The integration of its PET activities with the olefins business will offer “a significant long term cost advantage” across the North American footprint, CEO Aloke Lohia said in unveiling the plans in September 2015. Indorama also expects cost savings through access to cheap shale gas-fed feedstock. Louisiana’s state government has pledged USD 1.5 bn in investment aid.