Orascom JV acquires idled ammonia-methanol plant in Texas, production to restart
Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) announced Monday that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Netherlands-based OCI Nitrogen, acquired an integrated ammonia-methanol plant located in Beaumont, Texas.
OCI acquired the plant through a joint venture with Janus Methanol named Pandora Methanol, in which OCI holds 50% plus 1 share, it said.
The plant has a production capacity of 250,000 tons/year of ammonia and 750,000 tons/year of methanol.
In addition, the plant has an ammonia tank with a capacity of 18,000 tons and two methanol storage tanks with a capacity of 22,000 tons each. The plant has pipeline connections to adjacent customers and port access with dedicated methanol and ammonia import/export jetties and will ship both products along the US Gulf coast, the company said.
The integrated methanol-ammonia facility was started up in the late 1960s. The methanol unit was modernized in the early 1980s using Lurgi GmbH’s low-pressure methanol technology, and a new ammonia line was started up in 2000 based on the Haldor Topsoe technology.
The last owner of the plant, Eastman Chemical, took over the plant from Terra Industries in 2007 after it had been idle since 2004 when US-based natural gas prices topped $12/mmBtu.
The joint venture subsequently acquired the plant from Eastman, and OCI Nitrogen and Janus said they will jointly rehabilitate and operate the integrated methanol-ammonia facility.
The rehabilitation engineering and the acquisition cost and capital expenditures related to inspecting, repairing and updating the plant’s operating systems and environmental controls will amount to about $65mn by year end.
Ammonia production is expected to commence in the fourth quarter of 2011 and methanol production is targeted to start in 2012.
The joint venture is also studying the possibility of increasing both production and storage tank capacity on site, OCI said.
Comments