Offline crackers bolster US ethylene prices

A spate of cracker outages and maintenance pushed spot ethylene prices at Mont Belvieu, Texas, and Choctaw, Louisiana, to six-month highs this week.

On 30 July, Shell's facility in Norco, Louisiana, which houses two mixed-feed crackers totaling 1.37mn t/yr of production, was impacted by a power outage. Two days later a lightning strike at Indorama's 440,000 t/yr ethane cracker in Lake Charles, Louisiana, took that unit offline. In Texas, Motiva's 635,000 t/yr mixed-feed cracker in Port Arthur went down on 2 August for 10 days of maintenance on a compressor. ExxonMobil's 1.65mn t/yr ethane cracker in Baytown, Texas, reduced rates on 3 August after a brief upset. LyondellBasell's Channelview, Texas, complex reported flaring on 4 August; its 930,000 t/yr olefins plant No. 2 reported a compressor trip on 29 July.

These issues coincided with ongoing maintenance. Market participants expect BASF-Total's 1.14mn t/yr mixed-feed cracker in Port Arthur, Texas, which went down on 11 June due to a compressor issue, will restart no earlier than mid-August. Ineos' turnaround at its 935,000 t/yr No. 2 ethane cracker in Chocolate Bayou, Texas, also is taking longer than anticipated, with a restart expected in mid-to-late August. Formosa's 771,000 t/yr mixed-feed cracker in Point Comfort, Texas, began its turnaround on 1 April and was expected to end in late June. But the restart date was pushed to late August and then delayed again to the fourth quarter.

Spot US ethylene prices had been steady since mid-July, with Mont Belvieu assessed around 15.75¢/lb and the Choctaw cavern assessed around 12.5¢/lb until Aug. 4. In the last three days, the Mont Belvieu assessment strengthened by 2¢/lb to 17.75¢/lb, or 12.7pc, while the Choctaw cavern jumped 2.625¢/lb, or 21pc. The July ethylene contract price settled up by 1¢/lb to 25.5¢/lb.

By Michael Camarda