Europe’s final major petrochemicals industry investment?

Antwerp, Belgium – Ineos has warned its new €4.5-billion petrochemical facility in Antwerp, with 66% lower CO2 emissions than the average cracker, could be the last such investment in the EU.

Citing 200 European chemical plant closures in the last three years and companies switching investment to the US and China, Ineos said it “alone is committing to Europe through the investment in the only new cracker to be built in Europe in 30 years.”

The energy-efficient Project One cracker, it added, will support the supply of key materials for critical sectors such as health, pharma, food, water, technology, energy, and defence.

However, continued Ineos, the project has not received any support from EU funding programmes, such as the Innovation Fund for climate policy, which is focused on energy and industry.

The fund, it noted, claims to bring to the market solutions to decarbonise European industry and support its transition to climate neutrality while fostering its competitiveness. 

"If Europe is serious about the decarbonisation of its industry, then this fund needs to support real-world, real-time investments such as Project One," insisted Ineos founder and chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

Otherwise, he concluded, “industry will lose any remaining confidence in Europe and Project One risks being Europe’s last meaningful investment in the one trillion Euro chemical industry. Project One needs support from Europe.”