Lyondell Chemical gets court OK to idle debtor's Chocolate Bayou facility

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, March 13 - Lyondell Chemical Co. received court approval to leave debtor Equistar Chemicals, LP's Chocolate Bayou olefins chemical production facility idle for the long term, according to a Friday filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

According to the motion, Equistar temporarily idled the facility on Dec. 18 because of declining market and economic conditions.

Since the idling of the facility, Lyondell said the workforce has been engaged in cleanup and maintenance activities to preserve it in anticipation of a potential restart, but market conditions, particularly customer demand for the product produced at the facility, have steadily worsened, and the Lyondell debtors decided that operation of the facility is no longer necessary to meet customers' needs.

As a result, Lyondell said the facility will be placed in a long-term idle mode, and the workforce currently employed at the facility will be reduced to reflect the projected staffing needs through the clean-up phase and reject executory contracts and unexpired leases associated with the facility.

Lyondell is a U.S. subsidiary of LyondellBasell, a Netherlands-based polymer, petrochemicals and fuels company. LyondellBasell's U.S. operations and one of its European holding companies filed for bankruptcy on Jan. 6. The Chapter 11 case number is 09-10023.

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