Jun 4 2008
Eastman Chemical Company today announced the acquisition of Green Rock Energy LLC’s 50 percent ownership interest in the Beaumont, Texas, industrial gasification project. With this acquisition, Eastman becomes the 100 percent owner of the Beaumont industrial gasification project and remains the sole developer. In addition, Eastman announced the divestiture to Green Rock of its 25 percent ownership interest in the St. James Parish, La., industrial gasification project and will no longer participate in the project. Terms of the transactions were not disclosed.
Richard Lorraine, Eastman senior vice president and CFO, presenting today at an investor conference in New York said, “We have confidence in the success of both the Texas and Louisiana industrial gasification projects, however differences in strategic criteria led us to agree with Green Rock to end our joint investment.” Lorraine continued, “We are extremely pleased to become the sole owner and developer of the Beaumont industrial gasification project. It remains on track with the previously announced development milestones and we expect it will contribute approximately $2 of corporate earnings per share. We also continue to pursue additional industrial gasification projects that meet our investment criteria.”
Eastman expects to complete the front-end engineering and design for the Beaumont gasification facility in the second half of 2008, and to obtain non-recourse project financing by year end 2008. The construction phase is expected to create between 1,300 and 1,500 jobs, with approximately 250 permanent U.S. based jobs expected to result from the project.