Petrochemicals giant Ineos will expand its Grangemouth facility as part of a portfolio of major projects aimed at boosting its ethylene production.
Ineos − which recently agreed to buy the Forties pipeline from BP, and snap up Dong’s Energy’s assets – said it would increase the capacity of its crackers at Grangemouth and Rafnes in Norway to more than one million tonnes each.
The company is also assessing sites across Europe, including Antwerp in Belgium, for a new, 750,000-tonne Propane Dehydrogenation (PDH) plant.
Jim Ratcliffe, founder and chairman of Ineos, said: “These are three major new projects. Collectively, it’s the equivalent of building a new world scale cracker in Europe.
“These projects represent the first substantial investments in the European chemicals industry for many years.
“It has only been made possible because of Ineos’ massive $2billion investment in our Dragon Ships programme which allows us to import ethane and LPG from the US in huge quantities”.
Gerd Franken, chief executive, Ineos olefins and polymers north, said: “These are exciting times for Ineos as we plan to further increase the capacity of our crackers in Europe and at the same time to build an entirely new PDH plant.
“These expansions and new builds will increase our self-sufficiency in all key olefin products and give further support to our derivative businesses and polymer plants in Europe.
“All our assets will benefit from our capability to import competitive raw materials from the US and the rest of the world.”
Ineos currently produces nearly 4.5million tonnes of ethylene and propylene across Europe, but remains the largest buyer of ethylene and propylene in the region.
The three projects will increase the quantities of propylene and ethylene Ineos produces in Europe and support the growth and future profitability of its ethylene and propylene derivative businesses.
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