Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) subsidiary ExxonMobil Chemical Company has received final regulatory approvals and has started construction of a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker at its Baytown, Texas, complex and associated premium product facilities in nearby Mont Belvieu. 

ExxonMobil is expanding the Mont Belvieu, Texas polyethylene plant to produce more high performance premium plastics for export to global markets. The steam cracker will have a capacity of up to 1.5 million tons per year and provide ethylene feedstock for downstream chemical processing, including processing at two new 650,000 tons per year high performance polyethylene lines at the company’s Mont Belvieu plastics plant. 

ExxonMobil Chemical estimates exports could increase significantly as a result of the expansion. Production of the petrochemical products used in a wide range of consumer and industrial applications is expected to start in 2017. 

Shares of XOM are up $0.15, or 0.15%, at $102.88 in pre-market trading with a 52-week range of $84.79 – $103.45.