Methanex Corp. has let a contract to Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. to provide engineering services in the possible relocation of a methanol plant from Chile to Geismar, La.

Methanex said last month it had secured a 225-acre site at Geismar and planned to move an idle plant from Chile, where it has supported exploration and production to secure natural gas feedstock (OGJ Online, Apr. 20, 2011).

It has four plants in the South American country with combined capacity of 3.8 million tonnes/year. Financial reports indicate two of the plants, one with capacity of 882,000 tpy and the other with 840,000 tpy, were offline in fourth-quarter 2011.

Methanex expects the relocated plant to start up in second-half 2014.