PTTGCA signs Energy Storage Ventures for NGL storage

PTTGC America (PTTGCA) has executed a precedent agreement with Energy Storage Ventures LLC through its wholly owned subsidiary Mountaineer NGL Storage to provide NGL storage for PTTGCA’s proposed 1.5-million tonne/year ethane cracker and petrochemical complex in Mead Township, Belmont County, Ohio. The agreement will establish the first underground NGL storage site in the Marcellus and Utica shale formation, according to PTTGCA.

The underground salt caverns for NGL storage are part of a 200-acre site in Ohio’s Monroe County. The site, owned and operated by Mountaineer, is about 8 miles south of the PTTGCA project site. PTTGCA is working with Mountaineer on 1 million bbl of ethane storage and a pipeline that will link the storage to the PTTGCA complex.

Mountaineer will develop the $250-million storage site in two phases by creating multiple caverns in the existing underground salt formation. Each cavern will be capable of storing about 500,000 bbl of NGL, including propane, butane, ethane, and ethylene. Mountaineer has obtained all required permits to begin construction of Phase 1 of the project – about 1.5 million bbl – which will take 2-3 years to complete. An additional 1.5 million bbl is planned for Phase 2. Additional expansion is possible, subject to market demand.

PTTGCA, the US subsidiary of Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical, and then-partner Daelim Chemical USA LLC, a subsidiary of South Korea’s Daelim Industrial Co. Ltd., earlier this year revised the timeline for reaching final investment decision on the cracker project to first-quarter 2021 (OGJ Online, June 8, 2020). Daelim has since withdrawn from the project.