Huge new petrochemical project to add 1,400 construction jobs to Texas Gulf coast

Fuel Fix:

A company partially owned by Dow Chemical confirmed Tuesday that it will build a petrochemical plant in Freeport at Dow’s Oyster Creek site as intended.

The facility, slated for completion in 2019, would produce monoethylene glycol that is used to make polyester, resins, fibers and liquids like antifreeze. The project will require 1,400 construction jobs and 50 permanent workers.

The project is led by the MEGlobal company that’s owned by the Greater Equate joint venture, in which Dow owns a 42.5 percent stake, although Dow intends to eventually lessen its ownership percentage. The other partners are Kuwait and the Kuwait-based Boubyan Petrochemical Co.

“The Oyster Creek site provides MEGlobal with greater flexibility to satisfy our customers’ needs for consistent and reliable delivery of ethylene glycol products, especially in the growing U.S. and Asian markets,” said MEGlobal President Ramesh Ramachandran in the announcement.

Dow and MEGlobal are not releasing specific project costs, except to say that it’s more than $1 billion.

The MEG plant will tie into Dow’s new ethylene cracker facility in Freeport that’s scheduled to come online next year. Ethylene is the primary chemical building block for many plastics and products.
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Big Green and the anti-energy left have no alternative to the petrochemical business which relies heavily on natural gas.  If they were to somehow block fracking it would mean significant job losses and higher prices  for goods as well as harm the trade balance.