US olefins producer Dow Chemical on Friday suffered a process upset Thursday morning that has led to flaring at one of its ethylene plants in Freeport, Texas, a company source with knowledge of operations said Thursday. The process upset occurred Thursday at Dow’s 1 million mt/year Light Hydrocarbons Unit No 8, the company source added.
There was no immediate word on the operational status of the cracker.
The plant was last restarted in mid-January, after a month-long turnaround.
Dow operates two steam crackers at the petrochemical complex. Together they produce 1.6 million mt/year of ethylene, according to Platts data.
Spot ethylene prices were stronger on the day partly on news of the process upset at Dow’s cracker, one source said.
February and March ethylene was heard traded at 37 cents/lb MtB Wms, 0.5 cents/lb higher than Wednesday’s assessments of 36.25-36.75 cents/lb.
– Platts.com
