Yuhuang Chemical Inc. (YCI) has completed an $800 million funding agreement for its planned methanol project in St. James Parish, LA, which is being financed by the Bank of China and other Chinese banks. Construction has begun on the world-class methane-to-methanol facility, which is expected to produce 1.8 million metric tons/year of commercial-grade methanol. YCI’s funding agreement represents the largest Chinese-invested project in the U.S. Gulf Coast region and the first U.S. construction project financed entirely by Chinese banks. The project’s three planned phases may exceed $1.85 billion in investment.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. LLC (TGP) to begin tree clearing for and construction of the Connecticut Expansion Project, approved in 2016 [CP14-529]. The project would extend the existing pipeline in New York and Connecticut while adding four miles of underground pipeline in Massachusetts. Nearly two miles of the expansion is to be constructed in Otis State Forest, adjacent to TGP’s two existing underground gas pipelines. The forest is protected as conservation land under Article 97 of the Massachusetts Constitution. The Kinder Morgan Inc. pipeline recently settled with Massachusetts authorities allowing the project to proceed.