Japan's Mitsubishi Plans Major Investment in Chemical Complex in Trinidad & Tobago

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources Latin America (Cordoba, Argentina)--Trinidad and Tobago´s National Energy Corporation received a proposal from a consortium led by Mitsubishi Chemical (Tokyo, Japan) to invest in a new methanol-to-petrochemical complex in Trinidad. This will be the first major investment project in years that the government performs with private partnerships.

Mitsubishi's consortium includes local partner Neal & Massy Holdings (Point Lisas, Trinidad & Tobago) and Integrated Chemical Company Limited (ICCL) (Texas). This new undertaking will be performed in two phases. The first will demand the construction of two processing units for methanol and methyl-ether, which are products used as substitutes for diesel and propane. The final capacity for both processing plants still needs to be defined.

An Industrial Park in La Brea, a city in the southern region of Trinidad, has been selected as the location for the installation of the new site, which will demand a 100 million-cubic-foot-per-day supply of natural gas. The construction kickoff is expected to take place during the second half of 2014. The second phase of the project is under study, and it has not been determined if they will aim at expanding the production capacity of the methanol and methyl-ether units, or if they will add new processes.

The development of this new methanol-to-petrochemical complex will stimulate local economy by creating approximately 200 direct jobs and 300 indirect jobs. Furthermore, the project is expected to spur rapid downstream development, because it opens the possibility for generating several other new projects.

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