PKN ORLEN has signed a contract to for a licence and front-end engineering design for its Metathesis Unit. This marks the first stage of one of the Company's key petrochemical projects, intended to increase propylene output at the Płock plant up to 550,000 tonnes per annum.

Lummus Technology Inc., a company of the CB&I group (specialising in a wide range of energy infrastructure solutions), has been selected to supply the licence and design. Under the agreement, the contractor will also provide technical and engineering consulting services.

“The Metathesis Unit is currently one of our key development projects in the petrochemical segment, as announced in the recently published strategy for 2014–2017. In line with the strategy, we plan to expand our downstream segment by pursuing further value chain integration,” said Jacek Krawiec, President of the PKN ORLEN Management Board.

The Metathesis Unit, with an annual design capacity of 100,000 tonnes of polymer grade propylene, will be constructed at the Płock Production Plant. Construction work on the project is to begin in 2016, with production launch expected in late 2017.

In the coming four years, the ORLEN Group intends to spend PLN 1.6bn on its key petrochemical projects.