Amec Foster Wheeler was awarded a contract by Yuhuang Chemical Inc., a US-based subsidiary of Shandong Yuhuang Chemical Co. Co. Ltd., for its world-scale methanol facility proposed to be sited on the Mississippi River in St.James Parish, LA. Amec Foster Wheeler is to provide engineering, project management, procurement and early construction services. The intention is to extend the agreement into a full engineering, procurement and construction contract during 2016. Construction is expected to begin this year, with the first phase of the methanol project beginning operation by 2018. The facility will use natural gas as its primary feedstock (see Daily GPI, July 18, 2014).

Activist investor Carl Icahn has raised his stake in Cheniere Energy Inc. to 9.6% from a previously disclosed 8.2%. The move follows the recent addition of two Icahn associates to the Cheniere board of directors (see Daily GPI, Aug. 24) after Icahn disclosed his 8.2% stake in the company (see Daily GPI, Aug. 7). At the time, a regulatory filing said Icahn expected to have talks with Cheniere on company operations, capital spending, financing and executive compensation. Meanwhile, short-seller Jim Chanos has a significant short position in Cheniere shares and recently said on CNBC that the company is a “looming disaster” because its shares are overvalued, debt is high and there is glut of liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the global market. “LNG demand isn’t growing anymore. We already have excess capacity, and we’re about to pretty much almost double the capacity globally over the next four years,” Chaos said.