PTTGC America (PTTGCA) has executed a precedent agreement with Energy Storage Ventures LLC, (through its wholly-owned subsidiary Mountaineer NGL Storage) to provide NGL storage for PTTGCA’s proposed 1.5-million tonne/year ethane cracker and petrochemical complex in Ohio.
The agreement will establish the first underground NGL storage site in the Marcellus and Utica shale formation, according to PTTGCA. PTTGCA said it is working with Mountaineer on 1 million bbl of ethane storage and a pipeline that will link the storage to the PTTGCA complex.
The underground salt caverns for NGL storage are part of a 200-acre site, which is owned and operated by Mountaineer. It is about eight miles south of the PTTGCA project site.
Mountaineer will develop the $250-million storage site in two phases “by creating multiple caverns in the existing underground salt formation”.
Each cavern will be capable of storing about 500,000 bbl of NGL, including propane, butane, ethane, and ethylene. Mountaineer has obtained all required permits to begin construction of Phase 1 of the project – about 1.5 million bbl – which will take two to three years to complete. An additional 1.5 million bbl is planned for Phase 2. It said additional expansion is possible, subject to market demand.
PTTGCA is the U.S. subsidiary of Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical, and (then-partner) Daelim Chemical USA LLC, a subsidiary of South Korea’s Daelim Industrial Co. Ltd. Earlier this year it revised the timeline for reaching a final investment decision on the cracker project to the first quarter of 2021, but Daelim has since withdrawn from the project.
For more information visit pttgcbelmontcountyoh.com
