16 May 2013
ERJ staff report (EPN)
Vienna, Austria – Austrian oil and gas group OMV is to invest €230m in a project to boost and upgrade its production of butadiene in Germany and Austria, reports European Plastics News.
It plans to construct a new butadiene plant at its refinery at Burghausen in Germany and will upgrade an existing unit at Schwechat, Austria in response to the material’s significant growth worldwide.
Vienna-based OMV plans to exploit economies of scale and synergies between the two refineries in the project and expects the two sites will allow the group to cover around six per cent of total butadiene production in Europe, explained Manfred Leitner, executive board member responsible for refining and marketing.
He said that OMV is continuing to focus its investment on producing essential petrochemical materials aimed at emerging growth markets, reflecting change in the refinery sector. This means Europe will see petrochemicals taking on a more important role.
The extended butadiene plant at Schwechat is scheduled to go on stream in June next year while the new Burghausen plant in Germany is due to start up in the second quarter of 2015, OMV said.
Butadiene is used in the production of automotive tires. It also plays a role in plastics processing for the automotive industry and manufacturing quality rubber and latex products, for example in the medical sector.
OMV, Austria’s largest listed industrial company, has annual group sales worth almost €43 billion and employed around 29 000 in 2012.
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