We are one of the world's leading manufacturers of petrochemicals through our joint-venture company Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC (CPChem) and its affiliates. Our Chevron Oronite Company is a global fuel and lubricants additive business.
Chevron Phillips Chemical Company
CPChem is half-owned by Chevron. Headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas, CPChem has about 4,700 employees at 36 manufacturing facilities and two research and development centers in Belgium, China, Colombia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea and the United States.
CPChem is a top supplier of products used to make many popular and convenient items, including:
- Olefins and polyolefins, used to make food packaging, a variety of industrial pipe products and fuel tanks.
- Alpha olefins, used in synthetic motor oils and lubricants and in making polyethylene.
- Aromatics, used to make a variety of items, from carpeting and air bags to clothing and compact discs.
- Styrenics, used in packaging, electronic parts, housewares, tires, carpeting and toys.
- High-density polyethylene (HDPE), a polyolefin used in milk jugs, water pipes and plastic lumber.
In its position as an industry leader, CPChem is involved in a number of projects.
CPChem also is active in Saudi Arabia, with interests in four facilities in Al-Jubail.
CPChem's 35 percent-owned Saudi Polymers Company began commercial operations in October 2012. The new petrochemical complex is one of the world's largest operations for the production of HDPE, 1-hexene, polystyrene, polypropylene and other products. Polystyrene is used to make plastic dinnerware, CD cases and insulation, among other things. Polypropylene is used in the manufacture of automotive parts, carpeting and food packaging.
CPChem has a 50 percent interest in three other companies in Saudi Arabia.
- The Saudi Chevron Phillips Company facility produces materials used in making plastics, gasoline blending stocks and other products.
- The Jubail Chevron Phillips Company facility makes a number of chemicals used to produce medicines, synthetic rubber, dyes, films and packaging.
- The Petrochemical Conversion Company project includes construction of a nylon 6,6 polymer manufacturing facility and a number of polymer conversion projects. Architects often call for nylon 6,6 for use in commercial settings that get a lot of wear and tear, like offices and airports. Operations are expected to begin in 2013.
In Qatar, CPChem has interests in three operations in Mesaieed and Ras Laffan Industrial City.
- CPChem has a 49 percent interest in Qatar Chemical Company Ltd., a joint venture that owns a major olefins and polyolefins complex in Mesaieed. The petrochemical complex includes an ethylene cracker, a polyethylene plant and a 1-hexene plant. An ethylene cracker heats ethane to make ethylene and other products. The organic compound 1-hexene is used to make HDPE and other chemicals.
- Also in Mesaieed, CPChem has a 49 percent interest in Qatar Chemical Company II Ltd. (Q-Chem II), a facility that makes HDPE and normal alpha olefins. Normal alpha olefins are used to make polyethylene, synthetic motor oils, automotive additives, surfactants and other products.
- Q-Chem II also owns 54 percent of the capacity rights in a joint-venture plant that includes an ethylene cracker in Ras Laffan Industrial City. The unit provides ethylene feedstock to the alpha olefins and HDPE plants at Mesaieed.
In the United States, CPChem is building a 1-hexene plant with a design capacity of 250,000 metric tons per year at the company's Cedar Bayou facility in Baytown, Texas. Startup is expected in 2014. The plant will employ CPChem's proprietary 1-hexene technology and is expected to be the largest plant of its kind in the world. Also at Cedar Bayou, CPChem announced it is studying the possibility of expanding the facility's normal alpha olefins production capacity—targeting at least a 20 percent increase in a phased approach. The project would be completed in 2015.
The company also began front-end engineering and design work on several projects on the U.S. Gulf Coast, which are expected to capitalize on feedstock from the development of natural gas from shale in North America. These include an ethane cracker with an annual design capacity of 1.5 million metric tons of ethylene at the Cedar Bayou facility and two polyethylene units to be located in Old Ocean, Texas, each with an annual design capacity of 500,000 metric tons.
CPChem is also expanding, by 19 percent, its Natural Gas Liquids Fractionator Complex in Old Ocean. The project is expected to be completed in 2013.
Americas Styrenics LLC, 50 percent owned by CPChem, was formed in 2008. The company has the largest polystyrene capacity in the Western Hemisphere.
By the end of 2012, 17 of CPChem's 20 eligible facilities in the United States had been recognized for their high level of safety by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration Voluntary Protection Program. The program identifies facilities that operate with outstanding safety performance and exhibit a culture of safety.
Visit the CPChem website.
Updated: April 2013
Cautionary Statement