Westlake Chemical to expand ethylene production at Kentucky complex

Westlake Chemical has approved plans to expand ethylene capacity at its facility in Calvert City, Kentucky, officials announced on Friday.

This expansion will add 70 million lb/year of stated ethylene capacity to the Calvert City facility during the first half of 2017. 

"We are pleased about the ethylene expansion at the Calvert City, Kentucky facility," said Albert Chao, president and CEO of Westlake. "This expansion, which combined with incremental capacity increases will total 100 million [lb] of annual capacity, is in addition to the 250 million [lb] ethylene expansion at the Petro 1 facility in Lake Charles, Louisiana, which is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2016.

The additional production of ethylene at both facilities will be sold under the terms of a long-term, fixed-margin ethylene sales agreement.

"We believe the incremental earnings from these expansions will allow us to continue to grow our distributions at a low double-digit rate," the CEO said.