CEO of Mexican conglomerate Grupo Idesa, Mr José Luis Uriegas, ,has provided an upbeat assessment of Mexican and Brazilian petrochemical potential. Idesa is partnering Brazilian petrochemical company Braskem in the USD 3.2 billion Etileno XXI ethane and polyethylene (PE) complex under construction in Mexico. Uriegas told the IHS World Petrochemical Conference that when the complex comes online in the second half of 2015, Mexico’s ethylene capacity will rise to 2.43Mt/y from 1.4Mt/y. Idesa has a 25% stake in Etileno XXI and Braskem holds the remaining 75%. Etileno XXI will have capacity to produce over 1Mt/y of PE. Mexican national oil company Pemex’s gas and basic petrochemicals subsidiary PGPB will supply the ethane feedstock for the cracker. Uriegas said that Mexico has good pipeline connections to the US and the fourth highest shale gas reserves in the world. He adds that Brazil’s growing natural gas reserves could also help make ethylene production more competitive.