Saudi Chemanol to Start Expansion Project by H1 2010

Chemanol's board has released a report stating that it expects its methanol, formaldehyde and pentaerythritol expansion projects to begin commercial production no later than the first half of 2010.

The company previously launched all trial operations on the 231,000 tone per year methanol facility, the 60,000 tones per year formaldehyde facility the 20,000 tone per year pentaerythritol facility as well as the 1 Km pipeline to provide its methanol feedstock to its facilities. The report also mentioned plans to double the company's overall output from 424,000 tones per year to nearly 900,000 tones per year which was scheduled for this year, but have been delayed due to undisclosed reasons.- Al-riyadh