Industrial gases distributors Praxair Inc. (NYSE: PX), Danbury, CT, and Air Products (NYSE: APD), Lehigh Valley, PA, expanded with new gas production and delivery agreements.
Praxair, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Linde plc (NYSE:LIN; FWB:LIN), signed a long-term agreement to supply oxygen to Fulcrum BioEnergy’s Sierra BioFuels Plant in Storey County, Nevada. Praxair will build two vacuum pressure swing adsorption (VPSA) plants at the facility, which is under construction and expected to start up operations in early 2020, the company said.
Air Products and Sonatrach, the largest state-owned oil and gas company in Africa, have signed two gas production and delivery agreements. Conducted through both companies’ joint venture (JV), HELIOS, the deals have a combined value of $100 million, the companies said.
Through the deal, Sonatrach will recover helium from two existing liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities, and that helium will be delivered to HELIOS’ existing liquid helium plant in Arzew, Algeria.
Also part of the agreement, Air Products will design and build, and HELIOS will own and operate, two new air separation plants in Algeria. One will be located in the Hassi Messaoud District, with the second in Arzew. Once in operation, the plants will produce nitrogen, oxygen and argon, which will be supplied to the Algerian and Maghreb markets through Sonatrach’s subsidiary, COGIZ, the companies said.
