Credit: Shutterstock photoOil giant ExxonMobil Corporation 's XOM petrochemicals unit, ExxonMobil Chemical Company, has brought online two polyethylene lines at its plastics plant in Mont Belvieu, TX.
The polyethylene lines, each having a capacity of 650,000 tons per year, enhance the plant's capacity by about 1.3 million tons per year.
The capacity at the Mont Belvieu plant is expected to be 2.5 million tons per year. This will be one of the largest polyethylene plants in the world. The high-performance polyethylene products will offer considerable advantages in form of facilitating lighter weight superior performance packaging. It will also offer lower energy consumption and reduced emissions.
Majority of the parts required for Mont Belvieu polyethylene plant will be sourced from the Port of Houston later in October 2017. The shipments from the site are estimated to reach 200 containers per day at peak.
Growing the Gulf Expansion Program
This project forms part of the company's multi-billion dollar expansion project in the Baytown area as well as ExxonMobil's broader Growing the Gulf expansion program. In March 2017, ExxonMobil announced plans to make investments of $20 billion through 2022 to expand its chemical and oil refining plants on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The investments, which will be made over a 10-year period, will involve major chemical, refining, lubricant and liquefied natural gas projects at 11 proposed and existing sites. These investments are anticipated to create 45,000 jobs which include 12,000 permanent posts. The same will also generate $20 billion in increased economic activity in Texas and Louisiana.
Per the company, the scope of the projects is growing and the timeline has been extended. This highlights the company's commitment toward growing the Gulf initiative.
About ExxonMobil Chemical Company
ExxonMobil Chemical, one of the world's largest petrochemical companies, is a leader in some of the largest-capacity and top-development commodity petrochemical products in the world. Having manufacturing capacity in every major region of the world, the company serves large and budding markets. The bulk of the company's chemical capacity is incorporated with large refineries or natural gas processing plants.
Price Movement
The company's shares have returned 2.6% compared with the industry 's increase of 9.5% over the last three months.
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
Currently, ExxonMobil carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A few better-ranked players in the energy sector include Enbridge Energy Partners LP EEP , Braskem SA BAK and Alliance Resources Partners, LP ARLP . All these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here .
Enbridge Energy owns the U.S. portion of the world's longest liquid petroleum pipeline. The company delivered average positive earnings surprise of 22.83% in the last four quarters.
The largest petrochemical operator in Latin America, Braskem, delivered average positive earnings surprise of 88.17% in the last four quarters.
Alliance Resources Partners is a diversified producer and marketer of coal to major U.S. utilities and industrial users. The firm delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 29.76% in the last four quarters.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
