Dow Chemical Announces Potential Two-Year Delay for World's First Net-Zero Emissions Ethylene Cracking Project

During a speech at the 13th Laguna Conference held by Morgan Stanley, Dow Chemical CEO Jim Fitterling stated that the company's Path2Zero integrated polyethylene (PE) project in Alberta may face further delays due to market adjustments.

Due to economic uncertainties, Dow Chemical has recently suspended construction of its $11.6 billion net-zero emissions petrochemical project located northeast of Edmonton. Fitterling stated this week that the project construction will be delayed until market conditions improve, with the latest progress expected to be announced before the end of the year.

Fitterling revealed that the project was originally scheduled to start in 2027.

He stated, "In the current market environment, this is obviously not the appropriate timing."

Fitterling pointed out that Dow Chemical will need to wait for the polyethylene market to recover before moving forward with project construction.

At the investor session of the Morgan Stanley Laguna Conference, he stated: "We have announced a one-year project delay. At present, the delay period may be between one to two years."

Fitterling added that Dow Chemical is maintaining a balance between completing engineering design work (currently underway) and ordering long-lead equipment to ensure that the equipment is available on site. The company plans to delay major construction work until it is fully prepared to rapidly advance construction and efficiently achieve project commissioning.

He stated, "I want to emphasize that we still believe the Alberta project has good prospects and is a low-cost project. With the advantage of raw material costs and our existing large scale in the local area, we will increase production capacity through this project. This additional capacity can fully utilize the existing infrastructure at the site. In the future, this project will complement our 'Texas 9' investment project on the Gulf Coast of the United States, which has already been a very successful investment project."

Fitterling ultimately stated that the key issue lies in the timing.

He pointed out: "Another influencing factor is clearly our collaboration with our midstream partners as well as with Linde Group—Linde is responsible for building the hydrogen energy complex for this project. We are currently maintaining good communication with both parties."