Market sources told SSESSMENTS.COM that South African petrochemical company Sasol expected to restart cracker and downstream units at its Lake Charles Chemical Complex (LCCP) in Louisiana by early- to mid-October once it can get normal electricity supply. The complex was shut ahead of Hurricane Laura in late August. Sasol said it had completed damage assessments of all production units and associated infrastructure in LCCP. The producer said it only found moderate building damage and wind damage to cooling towers and some insulation.
Sasol’s LCCP includes a 1.5 million tons/year cracker, a 470,000 tons/year LLDPE unit, and a 380,000 tons/year EO/MEG unit. A fire damaged a new 420,000 tons/year LDPE plant during a commissioning process in January. Sasol said the LDPE unit did not sustain any significant storm impacts, adding that it had resumed commissioning the plant and expected to start up once power is fully restored at the complex.
As SSESSMENTS.COM noted, other chemical plants in Lake Charles are also waiting for full power restoration before resuming operations. These plants include Lotte Chemical’s 1 million tons/year cracker and 700,000 tons/year MEG plant, LyondellBasell’s 400,000 tons/year and 1 million tons/year PP plants. Westlake Chemical also operates three upstream chlor-alkali plants which can produce up to 1.36 million tons/year of caustic soda and 1.27 million tons/year of chlorine, two VCM plants with a total capacity of 952,318 tons/year, a 1.8 million tons/year EDC plant, two crackers with a total capacity of 1.19 million tons/year, a 200,000 tons/year LLDPE unit; a 60,000 tons/year HDPE/LLDPE plant, a 386,000 tons/year LDPE unit, and a 258,547 tons/year SM plant.
