ChevronPhillips Chemical was in the process of restarting ethylene production at its olefins complex in Sweeny, Texas, following a power and steam outage overnight, a source with knowledge of company operations said Tuesday.
CP Chem operates three crackers in Sweeny, with a combined ethylene capacity of more than 4 billion lb/year (1.8 million mt/year), according to Platts data. It was unclear how many crackers were in restart mode. The outages also affected CP Chem's fractionator operations in Sweeny.
The company confirmed the outage via a statement to Platts.
"Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP can confirm a power outage occurred this morning, which resulted in flaring as a safety precaution at its Sweeny facility," the company said. "Flaring is occurring as a result of the incident, but there is no danger to employees or the community at this time."
News of the production disruption spread through the market as spot ethylene prices remained strong while feedstock ethane weakened to a two-month low.
US spot ethylene was heard bid at 51.50 cents/lb for November and traded at 52 cent/lb MtB Wms for December. Ethylene was previously assessed Monday at 52 cents/lb.
Mont Belvieu purity ethane, meanwhile, was heard traded at 78.75 cents/lb and assessed at that level, 3.25 cents below Monday's assessment of 82 cents/gallon. Tuesday's ethane assessment was the lowest since Sept. 22.
