Basell has sold its 50% stake in Cipen to ExxonMobil

Basell has sold its 50% stake in the Cipen LLDPE plant to ExxonMobil Chemical for an undisclosed sum. Cipen, or Compagnie Industrielle de Normandie, is based at Notre Dame de Gravenchon in northern France. The deal gave ExxonMobil full ownership of the plant from 1 October.

According to Basell Polyolefins Europe president Werner Breuers, the group will in future focus its PE business on its own high and low density polyethylene technology. However, it will continue to supply its key accounts in the film business with both linear low and metallocene linear low density PE for a period of at least two years.

Head of ExxonMobil’s global polymers unit Jim Harris said: “Market acceptance of metallocene-based polyethylene resins continues to grow rapidly and we are committed to extending our global supply capability to meet the growing needs of our customers.”

Originally a joint venture between Shell and Exxon, the gas phase Cipen plant had its capacity increased to 320,000tpa in the late 1990s when it was retrofitted to handle Exxon’s Exxpol metallocene catalyst technology.

The deal follows ExxonMobil’s 2001 acquisition of Basell’s PP plant at the French site, brought about under the EU requirements to approve the formation of Basell.