The original version of this story stated that the Sweetwater plant is under construction. The plant is in the engineering design phase, as indicated in this corrected version.
Enron North America, a wholly owned subsidiary of Enron Corp., signed a nonbinding letter of intent to invest anotherr $20 million in equity in Syntroleum Corp.'s Sweetwater project, a planned 10,000 b/d Australian plant that will convert natural gas into synthetic specialty products. Syntroleum also announced plans for an equity sale to raise money for the plant.
Previously, Enron had made a $1 million contribution to the gas-to-synthetic products project, bringing to $21 million the total invested in the plant. The project is in the engineering design phase.
"We are pleased to have Enron confirm its continuing interest in our Sweetwater project,'' said Syntroleum Pres. Mark Agee. "Enron has been with the project virtually from the beginning and we appreciate their involvement.''
For its part, Syntroleum plans a public offering of 5.3 million shares of common stock and plans to use $75-95 million of the proceeds for development and construction costs of the Sweetwater plant. The company intends to use any remaining net proceeds to fund costs associated with pilot plant facilities, the development and construction of additional gas-to-liquids plants, research and development activities, the acquisition of complementary technologies, working capital needs, and other general corporate purposes.
Merrill Lynch & Co., Goldman, Sachs & Co., J.P. Morgan & Co., Salomon Smith Barney, and Petrie Parkman & Co. will serve as underwriters for the offering.