Belgian storage operator LBC Tank Terminals has finalized agreements with MEGlobal Americas for the design, engineering, construction and operation of a new terminal in Texas.

The terminal will be built adjacent to MEGLobal’s proposed MEG plant, on land owned by MEGlobal Americas and leased to LBC Freeport Terminal. The facility will be connected by pipeline to the production plant, which will be located at MEGlobal’s new Oyster Creek site in Freeport.

Construction of the terminal, which will mostly handle MEG and diethylene glycol (DEG), began last August and operations are planned to commence during 2019. The terminal operator said LBC Freeport will be an integrated part of MEGlobal’s supply chain, secured through a long-term contract along with the pipeline connection.

“With over 30 years of historical experience in handling glycols, this project opportunity fits our portfolio and investment risk models and is aligned with our business strategy to further optimize, build-out and expand our business,” said John Grimes, LBC’s regional business president Americas.

The MEG plant, scheduled to start up in mid-2019, will be MEGlobal’s first production facility in the US. It will benefit from a long-term ethylene supply deal with DowDuPont, which started up a new 1.5 million t/y cracker at Freeport in the third quarter of 2017.

The ethylene plant will eventually be expanded to 2 million t/y as part of DowDuPont’s next round of investment that was announced last May. Investments totaling around $4 billion will be spread over the next five years and come online in a phased manner starting in 2020.