Bechtel-Linde Consortium to build Large-scale Ethylene Plant at Baytown Complex
Bechtel and Linde have been awarded a contract to design and build an ethylene plant in Texas for ExxonMobil. The plant will be built just east of Houston at the ExxonMobil Baytown Complex, one of the largest and most technologically advanced petroleum and petrochemical complexes in the world.
At a capacity of 1.55 million tons of ethylene per year, the new facility will be one of the world’s largest ethylene plants. Construction will begin immediately, with design and procurement of key equipment already under way.
Brendan Bechtel, President of Bechtel’s Oil, Gas & Chemicals business unit, said: “This is an important project that will create thousands of jobs during construction and hundreds of permanent jobs during operations.
“In addition, our program will include extensive training for personnel building the plant and operating new equipment. We look forward to working with Linde to safely deliver this world-class ethylene facility to ExxonMobil.”
“This project marks a major step for Linde Engineering in the North American market,” added Dr Samir Serhan, Managing Director of the Linde Engineering Division. “Along with a proven track record of successfully executing large EPC projects together in the past, the combination of Linde’s leading ethylene technology and Bechtel’s extensive construction experience provides a world-class team to deliver a safe and reliable ethylene plant to ExxonMobil.”
Linde is responsible for engineering, procurement and services during pre-commissioning and commissioning of the new facility. Bechtel is responsible for the construction of the facility and related procurement.
In 2011, Bechtel and Linde formed an alliance focused on providing North American customers a competitive design-and-build approach to ethylene cracker facilities. The alliance builds on the companies’ previous work together building a world-scale petrochemicals complex in the United Arab Emirates, successfully completed on schedule in 2002.
