G2X Energy (Houston) and Methanol Holdings (Trinidad) Ltd. (MHTL) announced on Thursday that MHTL intends to partner with G2X Energy to construct a previously announced, world-scale methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) production facility at Lake Charles, LA. G2X Energy is developing the project, the Big Lake Fuels plant. It will produce 1.4 million m.t./year of commercial-grade methanol and will have the necessary facilities to convert methanol to automotive gasoline in the future.
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2:59 PM MDT | March 24, 2014 | Clay Boswell
The oil spill that has closed Galveston Bay and stopped traffic in and out of the ports of Houston, Texas City, and Galveston is unlikely to have a serious impact on chemical production or shipping, say analysts at IHS. They expect the channel to re-open today, at least partially. In the event of an extended closure, however, aromatics and methanol derivatives could be affected.
The spill occurred at about noon on 22 March, when a barge carrying 900,000 gallons of bunker fuel oil from Texas City to Bolivar collided with a cargo ship. A single compartment of the barge was breached, releasing 168,000 gallons of oil into the harbor.
Brief closures of the bay are not unusual. Between January and March 22, it was closed over a dozen times because of fog.
Data from the Energy Information Agency (EIA) suggest that refiners in the region have ample crude oil in storage, so that supply is not currently an issue, says Aaron Brady, senior director at IHS CERA. “Gasoline inventories are high, but distillate inventories are low, so product storage levels are not a limiting factor at the moment for refinery run rates,” he adds. “Gulf refineries are exporting a lot of product, some of which comes through Galveston Bay. If access to the Channel remains limited they may eventually have to run at lower rates.”
Two refineries at Texas City and several associated chemical plants could be affected owing to their close proximity to the cleanup effort, notes Chris McCloskey, director/aromatics, IHS Chemical. “After several days of restricted traffic south of the Texas City dike, the production of 800,000 m.t./year (2,200 m.t./day) of benzene and 1.1 million m.t./year (3,000 m.t./day) of xylenes may be impacted.”
Acetic acid and formaldehyde producers could have trouble obtaining feedstock if the channel remains closed. “A lot of methanol is supplied via water to the seven area plants that are producing acetic acid and formaldehyde,” says Marc Laughlin, director/methanol and acetone, IHS Chemical. “In a case of extended closure of Galveston Bay, that is not expected at this time, production and shipment of 1.2 million m.t./year (3,300 m.t/day) of acetic acid and 800,000 m.t./year (2,200 m.t./day) of formaldehyde could be impacted.”
There should be little effect on the shipment of steam cracker co-products, since the majority of crackers in the area run on ethane and consequently produce a low amount of heavier co-products. IHS also expects little or no impact on chlor-alkali shipments.
About 27 response vessels were working to skim and recover oil Monday morning, 24 March, and more than 69,000 feet of containment boom had been deployed, according to the US Coast Guard. As of 2 p.m. local time, the Coast Guard was conducting two overflights to assess the situation, according to GAC Hot Port News.
“We’re waiting for the results of an aerial assessment to determine whether it’s possible to partially reopen the ship channel today,” a US Coast Guard spokesperson told IHS Maritime. “Opening the channel is a priority.” Thirty-eight ships were queuing to enter the port of Houston Monday morning, and another 43 to exit. Five were waiting to enter the ports of Texas City and Galveston, and 12 to leave.