Amec Foster Wheeler has been awarded a $604-million engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) fixed price contract for part of a $1.85-billion methanol plant being developed by Yuhuang Chemical Inc (YCI), a US-based subsidiary of China’s Shandong Yuhuang Chemical Company Co. Ltd.
The first phase of the project, which includes the construction of a 1.8 million-tonne per annum methanol plant, is being built at YCI’s 1,300-acre site in St. James Parish, Louisiana.
The contract award reflects Amec Foster Wheeler’s strategy to grow both its chemicals business - as demand increases due to comparatively low oil and gas prices and its EPC portfolio. It follows the successful completion of an earlier phase of work at the plant awarded to Amec Foster Wheeler in 2015, covering engineering, project management, procurement and early construction services. The deep knowledge of the plant gained over the last two years, coupled with the recent local construction experience of Amec Foster Wheeler’s Power & Process business, gives an advantage to both contractor and client. The Power & Process business has successfully executed US$3 billion of lump sum EPC work in the last three years.
In line with the ‘full notice to proceed’, $604 million will be added to the Company’s order book in the second half of the year.
Yuhuang Chemical Inc. began to turn dirt on its 1,300-acre site in St. James Parish on Jan. 9, clearing the way for the first of three construction phases of a methanol manufacturing plant. Phase I, originally thought to cost $750 million, has risen to an estimated $1.2 billion to build, said Jerry Jones, Yuhuang's general counsel.