Ineos and TotalEnergies have reached agreement for the former to take full ownership of their 50:50 joint ventures at the Lavera chemical complex in southern France.
Ineos will take control of Naphtachimie, which operates an 720,000 t/yr ethylene capacity steam cracker at Lavera. Nameplate propylene capacity at the Lavera cracker is 300,000 t/yr and there is 120,000 t/yr of butadiene extraction capacity.
Ineos will also acquire the rest of the Appryl polypropylene business, with a capacity of 300,000 t/yr, and aromatics business Gexaro that has capacity of 270,000 t/yr. Naphtha storage business 3TC is also part of the deal. The acquisition will fully integrate these connected assets.
Ineos already owns and operates ethylene oxide, polyethylene and oxo-alcohol production assets at Lavera and operates the 207,100 b/d Lavera oil refinery through its Petroineos 50:50 joint venture with PetroChina.
Ineos will acquire the southern sections of TotalEnergies' ethylene pipeline network running from Lavera to the Lyon region, where Ineos business Inovyn operates a PVC plant and TotalEnergies operates the Feyzin steam cracker, in which Inovyn has a 42.5pc stake. The central and northern sections of the pipeline, from the Lyon region to the Lorraine region, where Ineos and TotalEnergies operate independent polyethylene units, will be held equally by both companies and remain operated by TotalEnergies.
The French company said the sale made sense as it has no ethylene consumption at Lavera and already sells most of its share of output there to Ineos. It said the deal allows it to strengthen links between Feyzin and its Carling site in eastern France, with Feyzin becoming Carling's integrated ethylene supplier.
No financial details were disclosed.
