Chinese Firm Secures Capacity on Transco Louisiana Project
Chinese investment in North American energy continues as one of the country’s top 500 companies has secured natural gas capacity one of the biggest pipelines in the United States. Yuhuang Chemical Inc. (YCI) announced Aug. 10 it has secured long-term, firm natural gas transportation capacity on the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) for the company’s $1.85 billion world-scale methanol manufacturing complex, known as YCI-M1.
Located on property recently purchased by YCI along the Mississippi River in St James Parish, Louisiana, YCI-M1 is a methane-to-methanol plant designed to produce 1.7 million metric tons per year of commercial grade methanol. To ensure deliveries of YCI-M1’s natural gas needs, YCI and Transco have executed a 20-year agreement for firm transportation capacity from points in Transco’s Zone 3 to a new delivery interconnection with YCI-M1 to be constructed and operated by Transco.
The North American subsidiary of Shandong Yuhuang Chemical Co. Ltd., YCI operates a corporate office in Houston and is developing its first major U.S. project in St. James Parish. The world-scale project will entail three phases, with construction on the first phase beginning in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Shandong Yuhuang Chemical is a China-based petrochemical group of companies with total fixed assets of $5 billion (USD), 2013 sales of more than $4 billion and more than 5,600 employees. The company is ranked 456th of the top 500 Chinese companies and 24th of China’s top 25 chemical companies. Shandong Yuhuang presently produces and markets a range of chemicals, including propylene, isobutene, butadiene, isoprene, Styrene, Toluene and others.
Williams’ Transco pipeline is the largest pipeline system in the country, delivering approximately 10 percent of the United States’ natural gas through its 10,000-mile pipeline system extending from Texas to New York City.
Tags: China, natural gas, Shandong Yuhuang Chemical Co. Ltd., Transco, Yuhuang Chemical Inc. (YCI)
