Dow Chemical is maintaining normal operations at all of its Texas plants ahead of Hurricane Harvey's anticipated landfall, the company said Thursday.
"Dow is continuously monitoring ... Harvey and its predicted paths," company spokesman Jarrod Erpelding said. "All of our sites along the Texas Gulf Coast have well-developed tropical weather preparedness plans and are fully prepared to implement them when needed. All Dow Texas sites continue to be operational."
Dow operates a complex in Freeport, Texas, that is home to a new 1.5 million mt/year cracker, a new 400,000 mt/year low-density polyethylene line and a new 650,000 mt/year linear low density polyethylene unit.
The Freeport plant has an existing ethylene capacity of 1.683 million mt/year from two existing ethane steam crackers, existing PE capacity of 350,000 mt/year for LDPE, 200,000 mt/year of Nordel metallocene ethylene propylene diene monomer, and 320,000 mt/year of polyolefin elastomers, plus 125,000 mt/year of bimodal PE.
Dow also has a 750,000 mt/year propane dehydrogenation unit at the Freeport complex. The unit recently underwent a planned maintenance between June and July, the company said.
Dow is in the process of commissioning the new Freeport cracker. It introduced hydrocarbons into the unit starting in July and categorized the startup as "imminent" at the time. Dow on Thursday reiterated that Harvey's impact was not expected to alter the company's timeline.
Other US Gulf Coast petrochemical producers, however, were shutting down operations with Harvey headed for the region.
Formosa Plastics Corporation USA and Occidental Chemical are both shutting down their Texas facilities, company sources said Thursday.
