Port Arthur: A Cutting-edge Refining and Petrochemicals Platform

Located in Texas near the Gulf of Mexico, Port Arthur is one of our largest refining and petrochemicals platforms. The inauguration of an ethane cracker in 2022 followed by the start-up of a new Baystar polyethylene unit in Bayport in 2023 have significantly scaled up our petrochemical production capacity, while contributing to our growth ambition in the United States.

A key refining player in the United States

Over the past 30 years, TotalEnergies’ Port Arthur platform has adapted to market needs and grown to become a major petrochemical platform with a crude processing capacity of 238,000 barrels per day.

Modernization projects including the construction of the Company’s largest fluidized-bed catalytic cracker (FCC) in the 1990s, and a coker in 2011 have enabled the site to process heavy crude oil as well as lighter domestic crudes. A high-pressure distillate hydrodesulphurization unit also allows production of ultra-low sulfur diesel that meets the specification of the American market. A catalytic gasoline hydrotreater reactor started in 2020, to bring the gasoline production of the refinery below the 10-ppm sulfur mark.

The platform has also implemented several projects in recent years to increase its environmental compliance, including the largest turnaround of its history in 2023.

The Port Arthur platform, a major player in the U.S. petrochemical industry

The Port Arthur platform features a 1 million metric ton/year steam cracker through a joint venture with BASF. After undergoing adaptation work since 2013, the steam cracker now uses mainly locally produced ethane and butane as feedstock. In December 2023, for the first time in the United States, TotalEnergies converted feedstock from plastic (pyrolysis oil) into a monomer at the BTP cracker (JV BASF), then into circular polypropylene, ISCC+ certified, at the TotalEnergies La Porte plant.

In 2022 and 2023, the completion of two major petrochemical projects developed by Baystar, a 50/50 joint venture between TotalEnergies and Borealis, further consolidated our development in the United States:

• The commissioning of a new ethane cracker with a production capacity of 1 million ton of ethylene per year at the Port Arthur site for an investment cost of USD 2 billion.
• The start-up of a new polyethylene production line ("Bay 3") in Bayport, which is partly fed by the ethylene from the new Port Arthur ethane cracker. With a combined production capacity of more than 1 million metric ton per year, Bayport has forged its reputation as a world-class site. By choosing the patented Borstar® technology for this new unit, we are working alongside our partners in developing the production of polyethylene grades tailored for sustainable applications in the energy, infrastructure and consumer goods sectors.

We are also active in the U.S. polymers market through our polypropylene plant in La Porte (Texas), which includes a Technology Center, and our integrated styrene-polystyrene plant in Carville (Louisiana), the largest of its kind in the world.

Alongside our renewables and LNG investments in the United States, these major petrochemical projects have confirmed TotalEnergies' status as a fully integrated player across the ethylene supply chain and a leader in the U.S. polyethylene market.