28-02-2013

South Louisiana Methanol announces $1.3B investment In St. James Parish

South Louisiana Methanol (SLM) today joined Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal in announcing plans to build what will be the largest methanol production facility in North America when completed. The SLM methanol production facility will convert 163,000 MMBtu/day of natural gas to 5,000 metric tons‐per­â€day of methanol.

“Louisiana offers a high quality energy workforce, access to abundant natural gas, and a strong network of pipelines and transportation facilities, which makes it an ideal partner for the production and distribution of methanol,” said Barry Williamson, CEO of South Louisiana Methanol. “We will utilize proven technology, to build the largest methanol plant in North America, which will consume CO2 for a more efficient process, ensuring strong environmental stewardship.”

The SLM plant will create 63 direct jobs with an average salary of $66,500 a year, and another 374 indirect jobs. SLM are partnering with Louisiana Economic Development (LED) to access a performance based grant for infrastructure costs, as well as services from LED FastStart, the state’s highly ranked workforce development program.

The SLM principals are Zeep Emissions Energy Plants Ltd (Zeep) and Todd Corporation.

ZEEP is a developer of large scale projects that upgrades natural gas into premium fuels and chemicals.

The Todd Corporation is private, family owned and one of the most successful companies in New Zealand. Todd will provide major investment backing for the SLM plant, with the intention of building multiple gas-­â€to-­â€liquids plants in the Gulf Coast Region. Among a number of world class destinations the Todd Corporation have selected Louisiana because of its strong economic climate, infrastructure and best in class workforce.

As a liquid hydrocarbon product, methanol may be easily distributed as an intermediate feedstock for chemical manufacturers in the Gulf Coast region and to foreign markets. Methanol is a critical ingredient in formaldehyde, acetic acids, olefins and transportation fuels. It can be found in home construction materials, paints and adhesives, plastic bottles, fuel cells, biodiesel and various fuel blends.

“The technical and capital efficiencies of our plant in St James Parish will make us directly competitive with overseas plants from even the lowest gas producers in South America and the Middle East as well as smaller plant relocations and brownfield projects, all in a brand new plant with state­â€of‐the­â€art operating efficiencies and long plant life,” said Mr. Williamson. “The conversion of natural gas to methanol offers natural gas producers an alternative avenue to LNG, enabling the creation of products which are consumed at home on a long­â€term basis.

“This is a new era in the energy industry, and the Gulf Coast region will be the leading beneficiary,” said Mr Williamson

The plant will be locatedin St James Parish, on the west side of the Mississippi River. St James Parish is an ideal location for methanol production due to its proximity to natural gas pipelines, CO2 supplies, deepwater ports, and the major urban areas of New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

Construction of the SLM facility is targeted to begin later this year, with full commissioning and start-­â€up in 2016.