The group is investing in PTA plants in Belgium and Asia

BP has unveiled a major commitment to the production of PTA, the key feedstock used in the manufacture of PET for bottles, textiles and film products. It has also given details of expansions now completed in paraxylene, which is used in PTA production. Capacity for PTA at BP’s Geel site in Belgium is to be debottlenecked by more than 350,000tpa, taking the figure to 1.4 million tpa by retrofitting the two lines with the company’s latest technology. The project will be completed in early 2008.

BP’s new low cost technology, which also offers better energy efficiency, is being applied to new capacity now being built in Asia. In fact, says David Miller, BP’s global PTA president: “We are looking at all our PTA plants across the world to identify other opportunities for applying this new technology in other similar debottlenecking projects, particularly in North America.” Overall, BP has ten PTA plants with total capacity of 7.1 million tpa, before the current expansion.