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Frequently
Asked Questions

  • How big is Project ONE’s yard/terrain?

    The Project ONE project area is as much as 55 hectares or 550,000 m2.

    Some other notable figures:

    • INEOS invests over 4 billion in Project ONE in Antwerp
    • The yard will employ 3,000 people at peak
    • 4 km of sheet piling has been installed and 20,000 pile foundations
    • 300,000 m3 of soil has been excavated
    • The water treatment plant purifies 75 m3 of water per hour
    • The actual ethane cracker has a footprint of some 75,000m²
    • The diameter of the ethane tank at the site is almost as long as a football field
    • 45,000 tonnes of steel will be consumed, equivalent to 6x the Eiffel Tower
    • The project will require 1,000’s kilometres of power lines
    • Man hours at the Lillo yard are estimated at 8 million; at the foreign yards where the modules are built, it is estimated at 19 million
  • Does Project ONE receive government support?

    First, an important distinction should be made between government support in the form of guarantees and grants.

    The Flemish government facilitates investment projects in Flanders through Participatie Maatschappij Vlaanderen (PMV) and Gigarant, a vehicle that provides market-based guarantees for lending to companies. This allows the region to support crucial investments in the economy. The advantage for companies is that lenders are willing to grant larger credit amounts due to this guarantee. There are often conditions attached to this for the company, for example in terms of employment. A win-win, therefore, for both parties. The recent presentation of PMV’s annual results showed that 7,513 guarantees are in place to enable investments in Flemish SMEs and industrial companies. Guarantees of this kind are also common outside Belgium as a support instrument for investors.

    In other words, the Gigarant guarantee is not a subsidy or a payment to a company, but a way of facilitating commercial credit with banks. In the case of Project ONE, the Flemish Government is guaranteeing up to €500 million through Gigarant.  This is a significant but comparatively small part of the total external financing for the investment which amounts to €3.5 billion. Thus, the Flemish Government guarantees only 14% of the total financing. INEOS is paying a market-based guarantee premium to the Flemish Government for this of as much as 85 million euros over the total term.  

    The guarantee contract includes an employment guarantee of 250 full-time workers. For Project ONE, INEOS is expected to more than meet this condition and employ 450 full-time direct workers (300 on a payroll basis and about 150 contractors for permanent maintenance) and indirectly a multiple of that.

    INEOS Group, which is financially sound, also guarantees repayment to the lenders. Only if the global INEOS Group were to go bankrupt will the lenders be able to recover from the Flemish Government. This chance is virtually nil. So no Flemish tax money will go to INEOS.

    No grants for Project ONE have been paid out from the government to date. However, there are some support possibilities from the Flemish government for specific efforts. For this, INEOS must meet the conditions like any other company, including European and Flemish regulations.

    If there will be subsidies in the future, it will be for employee training and education or environmental impact mitigation, and this according to government regulations that are the same for all companies. This would allow INEOS to claim one-off support from the Flemish Agency for Innovation and Enterprise (Vlaio) for Project ONE of up to €8 million in total.

    In addition, for its efforts in research and development at all its sites (not just Project ONE), INEOS can receive up to €8 million annually.

  • When will Project ONE be completed?

    Construction of Project ONE is well underway and the installation is expected to be operational by the end of 2026.

  • How will INEOS limit inconvenience to the neighborhood?

    Logistics and transport

    During Project ONE’s construction, maximum use will be made of ship transport to minimize the burden on road traffic in the neighborhood. A modular design was chosen, whereby large modules are produced off-site and then transferred by ship to the site in Lillo. In this way, we can significantly reduce both the construction time and any local inconvenience.

    Ethane, the raw material of the Project ONE installation, is supplied by ship. When the installations are put into operation, the ethylene produced will be transported via pipelines: the safest and most ecological method of transport, which relieves road traffic as much as possible.

    Moreover, the ethane that INEOS imports into Antwerp will be transported by a new generation of ships that are themselves powered by ethane gas rather than heavy fuel oil. Using gas as fuel eliminates sulphur emissions and reduces carbon dioxide emissions compared to conventional fuels.

    Noise – light – odour

    We’re striving for the lowest possible noise emissions during the construction of the installation. The use of ground flares will limit visible flare activity. The elevation flares serve primarily as a safety system and will only be used to start up and shut down the installation or in the event of a major malfunction. The high reliability requirements of the production units should minimize the need for flaring. The nuisance of odour is not expected: the planned water purification installation will break down the sulfur compounds from the ethane cracker in a closed installation.

    Protecting nature and biodiversity

    The vegetation on the industrial estate that was removed to prepare the land for construction will be more than compensated for. In order to protect and relocate biodiversity, a large number of measures have been provided for during the construction phase – the relocation of the hairy wood ant and orchids, the preservation of a natural corridor on the site, etc. We are working on these things with the port and independent organizations that are responsible for the conservation of nature.

  • What phase is the project in now?

    Construction of Project ONE is in full swing. At the site, more than 1,000 people are currently already working on the construction of the ethane cracker and associated infrastructure. In addition, there are many colleagues helping to shape the project.

    Moreover, the construction work for Project ONE is not only being done in Antwerp. At various yards elsewhere in the world, large ‘modules’ such as furnaces and ‘piperacks’ are currently being built that will subsequently be shipped to Antwerp. It proved impossible to build those modules in Europe because you need a very large yard with connection to maritime transport as well as specialised labour. Moreover, we save time this way, because you would not be able to work on the foundations and the superstructure on the Project ONE yard at the same time.

    Curious to see what it’s like on-site in Antwerp? Then take a look at this video:

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  • What will be built? What will be produced?

    With Project ONE, INEOS is building a new ethane cracker. In addition, the site will be equipped with the necessary infrastructure and utilities, including a steam and power generation plant and a quay for loading and unloading ships. There will also be a new office building on the site, warehouses for spare parts and maintenance,…

    The ethane cracker which will produce ethylene – an essential building block for numerous high-quality products in the automotive, construction, energy and medical sectors (among others). For example, pipes for transporting drinking water and gas, insulation materials, textiles, solar panels, windmill lubricants and blades, sterile packaging, MRI scanners, recyclable packaging, and lightweight parts for cars.