Originally Posted on KPLC
WESTLAKE, LA – In March, Sasol broke ground on the $8.1 billion ethane cracker complex and began Phase 1 of the project. (Read more about it HERE.)
Seven months later, the site has a new foundation and a few structures to make way for the actual ethane cracker.
“The progress has been fantastic. We’re moving through the site preparation phase. We’re starting to put in foundations. We’re starting to pour concrete. We’re starting to build operating units. So we’re making the transition from site prep to actual facility construction,” said Mike Hayes, Sasol’s public affairs manager.
According to Hayes, Phase 1 of the project is on schedule. Construction crews spent the past seven months removing dirt, replacing it with structural soil and installing pilings for the project.
The ethane cracker portion of the project is expected to be completed in December 2017 but pieces of the project are starting to come together.
“We’ll start, in the first quarter of next year, to erect operating equipment. We have a substation on site that is going up now so some of the early pieces are being put in place,” he said.
