G2X Energy Inc. of Houston plans to start site work by the end of this year for its proposed world-scale methanol production facility in Lake Charles, LA.

All state and federal permits for the project have been obtained, and staff hiring is in progress. The opening of a local G2X office is planned, said CEO Tim Vail. “Our hope is to have our EPC [engineering, procurement, construction] contractor, the Proman Group, to begin site work by the end of this year.”

When complete, the Big Lake Fuels facility would be able to produce more than 1.4 million metric tons of commercial-grade methanol per year. The site also is being designed for additional facilities to convert methanol to automotive gasoline in the future.

The plant is to be located on a 200-acre site on the Calcasieu Industrial Canal off of the main Calcasieu Ship Channel. It is adjacent to multiple large natural gas pipelines (both interstate and intrastate) and industrial electricity connectivity.

The site affords the option to ship methanol via barge or oceangoing vessel and has the capability to support multiple production process trains (see Daily GPI, Dec. 19, 2014).

G2X said Wednesday it is partnering with Southern Chemical Corp. and Proman on the project.

Separately last September, Sasol Ltd. said it would decide within two years whether to construct a gas-to-liquids plant in Louisiana, after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded the South African company a wetlands permit to build the plant and an ethane cracker (see Daily GPI, Sept. 5, 2014).