INEOS has announced it will build €2.7 billion (£2.4bn) chemicals facilities in Europe in a move the firm said would be complementary to its plans for the giant Grangemouth plant.
The company’s billionaire owner Jim Ratcliffe reckons the new facilities will involve the biggest investment in the European sector for a generation.
Ineos said the location of the new plants will be determined soon and is likely to be on the coast of North West Europe.
The plants include a cracker that will be the first built in Europe for two decades. This will break ethane feedstock gas sourced by Ineos from US shale fields into chemicals used in products ranging from plastics and solvents.
Describing the investment as a game changer for the industry, Mr Ratcliffe said the move provided further evidence of the rewards Ineos is reaping for its decision to invest heavily in bringing gas from the US to Europe.
He said the investment would ensure the long-term future of the group’s European chemical plants.
Group corporate affairs director Tom Crotty said the investment in the new plant would be “absolutely complementary,” to developments at Grangemouth.
“There’s a lot of money going in at Grangemouth,” noted Mr Crotty. He said Ineos had been able to transform the economics of petrochemicals production at Grangemouth by using gas imported from the US.
In June last year the company announced plans to increase capacity at the cracker facilities at Grangemouth.
It is also investing in energy systems on the site and facilities associated with the Forties pipeline system it acquired last year.
The facilities INEOS plans to build in Europe include a Propane Dehydrogenation (PDH) unit for making propylene, a building block of carbon fibre. Ineos said last year it was eyeing sites in Belgium for a PDH unit.
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