Bayport Polymers LLC (Baystar)—an equal joint venture of Total SA’s Total Petrochemicals & Refining USA Inc. and the Borealis AG-Nova Chemicals Inc. JV Novealis Holdings LLC—has started construction of its previously announced Borstar Bay3 project at its production site in Pasadena, Tex. (OGJ Online, Sept. 26, 2018).

Baystar broke ground on the 625,000-tonne/year Borstar polyethylene (PE) unit on Feb. 28, the operator said.

The Borstar PE unit will more than double the site’s existing capacity as well as allow Baystar to provide its North American customers with a greater range of products, said Diane Chamberlain, president of Baystar.

The unit is scheduled for startup in 2021.

First announced in May 2018, the Borstar PE plant project comes as part of Baystar’s strategy to help meet growing global demand for PE by taking advantage of competitively priced ethane feedstock from US shale production and easy export access to markets abroad and follows official start of construction on Baystar’s 1 million-tpy ethane steam cracker at Total’s 200,000-b/d integrated refining complex in Port Arthur, Tex. (OGJ Online, June 5, 2018

).

The $1.7-billion ethane steam cracker—which will supply feedstock both for Baystar’s existing 400,000-tpy PE unit as well as the new Borstar unit—remains on schedule for commissioning in late 2020.