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Primus enters deal with Tauber for marketing of Marcellus methanol

http://www.chemnet.com   May 04,2016 Platts
Tauber Oil will manage the marketing and distribution for a planned methanol facility targeted for the Marcellus Shale region, Primus Green Energy said Tuesday.

Primus Green Energy plans startup at the 60,000 mt/year methanol facility in fourth-quarter 2017. The company intends to later add three trains to increase capacity to 233,000 mt/year at a location to be announced in the coming months, the company said in a statement.

Tauber Oil will offtake all the material, the statement said. In addition, Tauber Oil subsidiary Interconn Resources will supply the natural gas to the facility.

"Working with Tauber -- an established methanol distributor with an extensive client roster and deep market knowledge -- allows us to confidently deploy our system to arguably the largest shale play in the United States," Primus Green Energy Chief Commercial Officer George Boyajian.

The material from the Primus plant will target regional distribution, the company has said.

The US has seen significant capacity expansion since the start of 2015 with plans for continued expansion, primarily in the US Gulf Coast and the Pacific Northwest.

US methanol production capacity stood at 5.75 million mt/year at the start of the year, up from 2.25 million mt/year at the start of 2015.

Planned projects in the US Gulf Coast include Natgasoline (1.75 million mt/year in 2017), South Louisiana Methanol (1.92 million mt/year in 2017), Yuhuang Chemical (1.7 million mt/year in 2018) and G2X Energy's Big Lake Fuels (1.4 million mt/year in 2019).

In the Pacific Northwest, Northwest Innovation Works has announced plans for plants in Kalama, Washington (3.5 million mt/year in 2019) and Clatskanie, Oregon (3.5 million mt/year in 2020). An additional planned plant in Tacoma, Washington (7 million mt/year) has been canceled.

The Primus plant will be able to use natural gas feedstocks such as wellhead and pipeline gas, dry or wet associated gas, ethane and synthesis gas, the statement said.

"By comparison with other (gas-to-liquids) technologies, the process holds many key advantages, including record-low capital and operating costs, high liquid product quality, zero wastewater, unmatched process simplicity and one of the best conversion yields on the market," the company said.

Platts last assessed US spot methanol on Monday at 62.75-63.25 cents/gal FOB USG for May and June.
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