We can’t see into exactly what the future holds for US ethylene, but ethylene futures are now tradable at two of its Mont Belvieu locations.
The year 2020 was significant in the evolution of the US Gulf Coast ethylene market due to the opening of the new Enterprise Products (“Enterprise”) ethylene storage facility and joint venture ethylene export terminal. OPIS PetroChem Wire (“OPIS PCW”) spoke to Jim Teague, Co-CEO and Chris D’Anna, SVP Petrochemicals from Enterprise to learn more about the new ethylene system and hear the company’s perspective on the future growth of the US ethylene market as it expands into the global marketplace.
Our last blogpost in early April ended on a deeply uncertain note. Lockdowns in the US had just begun a few weeks earlier. COVID-19 was still gripping Europe and Asia and was just ramping up in South America. Consumer demand was a huge unknown for many manufacturing sectors and oil prices went negative at the end of March. The stability of the entire petrochemical supply chain was called into question.
A new petrochemical facility may become a magnet for the first-ever ethane supplies from the U.S. to China.