PTTGC America, the US arm of Thailand's PTT Global Chemical, on Wednesday said it had signed a deal with a storage company to build infrastructure for a proposed petrochemical complex in Ohio, USA. Under the contract, Mountaineer NGL Storage, a subsidiary of Energy Storage Ventures will construct a $250 million NGL storage and transportation facility for the complex.
Mountaineer will construct underground salt caverns for NGL storage, which will be the first in the Utica and Marcellus shale formations. The facility is located on a 200-acre land, around 13 kilometers south of PTTGC America's planned complex. It will be equipped with some caverns able to store up to 500,000 barrels of NGLs and ethylene.
Mountaineer has been planning its project since at least four years ago and has secured necessary permits to start the first phase of the project, which will include 1.5 million barrels of storage that will likely take up to three years to construct. The second phase will follow with an option to install another 1.5 million barrels of storage, depending on market demand.
PTTGC America said the signing brought the company one step closer towards a final investment decision, which has been repeatedly deferred. Earlier this month, South Korea's Daelim withdrew from the project, and PTTGC said it was looking for a new partner to develop the project. According to permitting documents, the planned complex will include a 1.5 million mt/year cracker and four derivative plants which can produce up to 1.6 million tons/year of polyethylene.
