Methanol plant will create 3k construction jobs along Texas Gulf Coast

Updated Nov 26, 2013

OCI Beaumont methanolOrascom Construction Industries (OCI), a Dutch fertilizer company, has announced plans to build a second methanol plant in Beaumont, Texas, about an hour east of Houston along the state’s Gulf Coast.

A budget for the project has not yet been announced, but it is expected to create 3,000 construction jobs over the next three years, according to a report from the Houston Chronicle.

The new jobs will add to an already-booming Texas economy, especially in the Houston area.

The new plant will produce more than 1.8 million tons of methanol per year. Methanol is a chemical used in the making of a wide range of products, the Chronicle reports, including paint and glue. But it’s also a “very clean,” and “high octane” fuel, OCI CEO Nassef Sawiris told the paper.”

“So it makes a ton of sense to accept it as an additive, and it’s not going to compete with ethanol. It’s going to be put alongside ethanol,” he said.

Methanol is made from natural gas and the Beaumont OCI plant is the latest in more than $100 billion in announced investments across the U.S. attributed to the low price of natural gas here.

Be sure to read the Chronicle‘s full article by clicking here.