Heyco Energy to install first LNG plant in Lavaca county, US

US-based Heyco Energy Group is ready to commence installation of the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility on the Southern Gulf Coast.

The company will set up the plant in Lavaca county, Texas in a bid to serve the Eagle Ford shale play. It hopes to produce gas by the fourth quarter of 2014.

The new facility will target dual-fuel applications in the Southern Gulf Coast’s energy sector, specifically drilling rigs and hydraulic fracturing units and marine applications.

Heyco Energy CEO George Yates said that as more and more companies convert from diesel, LNG’s economic and environmental benefits will transform the drilling and completion business going forward.

"We are in a unique position to provide our customers with a lower-cost, lower-emission fuel in the middle of the largest drilling boom our country has seen in years," Yates added.

Using a Kryopak pre-cooling mixed refrigerant (PCMR) process, manufactured by Salof Refrigeration based in New Braunfels, Texas, the facility will initially produce 150,000 gallons per day.

Based on demand, the production can be expanded to 300,000 gallons per day within six to eight months.

Heyco Energy LNG division president Christopher Coleman said: "With a growing percentage of rigs converting from diesel to natural gas, and a small percentage of hydraulic fracturing units converting as well, it is apparent that many companies are eager to switch to LNG once they have a source."

Heyco’s subsidiaries and affiliates are active in upstream oil and gas operations in the US and Europe.

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Image: Heyco’s LNG plant in Lavaca County uses a Kryopak PreCooling Mixed Refrigerant process. Photo: courtesy of Vichaya Kiatying-Angsulee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.