Sabic was expecting its third naphtha cracker at Geleen in the Netherlands, to come onstream in 2009 at the earliest, a report quoted Franz Noteborn, CEO of Sabic Europe as saying.

The cracker has a planned capacity of around 550,000 tonnes per year of ethylene, said the Platts report.
Sabic's contract to buy ethylene with BP Refining and Petrochemicals, BP's German unit, is due to come to an end, so Sabic has decided to build on its existing site at Geleen to satisfy its olefin requirements, Noteborn said.
He said a feasibility study for the project was still in progress, with a final decision on the exact specifics on plant start-up etc, expected early 2006.
In line with the cracker expansion, Sabic was also planning to increase the capacities of its polymer plants at Gelsenkirchen in Germany.
It was planning to build a 400,000 tpy low density polyethylene plant, a 250,000 tpy bimodal high density PE plant and a 400,000 tpy copolymer polypropylene plant, the report said.
Meanwhile, Sabic Europe was close to reaching a decision to switch MTBE production at Geleen, the Netherlands, to ETBE, a source close to the company said.
According to earlier reports, the company had expected to make the switch by the end of 2005, but it was understood the decision may likely be brought forward to next year.
The company has the capacity to produce 138,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of MTBE at the Dutch site.
Sabic's plan, if decided, follows the steps by other European MTBE producers.
Hungary's MOL will also begin producing bio-ETBE by the end of this year.
The switch at MOL's 108,000 tpy MTBE plants at its Szazhalombatta refinery for the production of bio-ETBE was almost complete, the company said earlier.
By the end of 2005, the 52,000 tpy MTBE unit at the Bratislava refinery of MOL subsidiary Slovnaft will also be converted for the production of bio-ETBE, the company said earlier.