Another Big Plant Coming to Louisiana

Connecticut-based Castleton Commodities International announced this week that it plans to build a methanol plant in Plaquemines Parish, LA.  The site is downriver from New Orleans on the east bank of the river near Braithwaite.  The plant is expected to cost $1.2 billion and produce 5,000 metric tons of methanol per day and use natural gas as a feedstock.  While it is not specifically mentioned, the downriver location gives Castleton easy access to the Gulf of Mexico and international shipment, yet another way to export U.S. natural gas by turning it into a basic industrial product and bypassing the LNG route.