Chevron is one of the world's leading manufacturers of petrochemicals through its joint-venture company Chevron Phillips Chemical Co LLC and its affiliates (CPChem). 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 4,600 employees at 36 manufacturing facilities 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, bag liners, high-pressure pipe 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 aspirin and air bags to clothing and compact discs
- Styrenics, used in packaging, electronic parts, paper, housewares, tires, luggage, carpeting and toys
- High-density polyethylene, 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.
In the fourth quarter of 2010, CPChem began operations on the 49 percent-owned Q-Chem II project, which has plants in Mesaieed and Ras Laffan, Qatar. The project includes a 345,000-metric-ton-per-year alpha olefins plant and a 350,000-metric-ton-per-year high-density polyethylene plant.
Q-Chem II owns 54 percent of the capacity rights in a separate joint-venture project that includes a 1.3 million-metric-ton-per-year ethylene cracker in Ras Laffan. An ethylene cracker heats hydrocarbons, in this case ethane, to "crack" molecules to make ethylene and other products. The unit will provide ethylene feedstock to the alpha olefins and high-density polyethylene plants at Mesaieed. The cracker at Ras Laffan began operations in April 2010.
CPChem has a 50 percent interest in Saudi Chevron Phillips Company (SCP) in Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia. This plant began operations in 1999 and produces materials used in making plastics, solvents, gasoline blending stocks and other products.
CPChem also has a 50 percent interest in the Jubail Chevron Phillips Company (JCP), in the same complex as SCP. This facility, which began commercial production in 2008, makes a number of chemicals used to produce medicines, plastics, synthetic rubber, dyes, films and packaging.
In 2010, construction continued at Saudi Polymers Company, a joint-venture company formed to execute another petrochemical project in Al-Jubail, adjacent to SCP and JCP. The project is expected to begin production in late 2011 and is designed to include an olefins cracker for the production of ethylene, propylene, polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene. The facility will also make 1-hexene, which is used in making high-density polyethylene and other chemicals.
In the United States, CPChem announced in October 2010 the development of a 1-hexene plant with a capacity of more than 200,000 tons per year at the company's Cedar Bayou Facility in Baytown, Texas. Operations are expected to begin in 2014. The plant is expected to be the largest 1-hexene unit in the world.
At Cedar Bayou, CPChem and its partners run one of the world's largest loop slurry high-density polyethylene plants. This proprietary technology, used in making polyethylene, is licensed by more than 85 commercial facilities around the world.
In 2011, construction on a new 22 million-pound-per-year Ryton® polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) plant is scheduled for completion in Borger, Texas. Ryton PPS is used in a variety of applications, including automotives and electronics.
Americas Styrenics LLC, 50 percent-owned by CPChem, began operations in 2008. The company has the largest polystyrene capacity in the Western Hemisphere. One of the most ubiquitous kinds of plastic, polystyrene is used to make plastic dinnerware, CD cases, insulation and foam drink cups, among other things.
CPChem holds more than 2,000 domestic and international patents and patent applications and employs more than 330 scientists, researchers and engineers at its four research and technical centers.
The company also is a leader in petrochemical and polymer research. CPChem provides laboratory and pilot-scale experimentation, analytical and mechanical testing, and patent, technical and service support for customers worldwide.
By the end of 2010, 18 of CPChem's 21 owned 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, led by the plant's management team and embraced by the workforce.
Visit the CPChem website.
Updated: May 2011
Cautionary Statement