Press Release
On April 6, 2018, Ambassador Li Qiangmin, Consulate General of the Peoples Republic of China in Houston, received CEO of American Ethane, John Houghtaling on April 5, 2018.
Houghtaling co founded American Ethane in New Orleans in 2014, and since that time has raised over 1.
The Ambassador and Mr. Houghtaling discusses the $26 Billion dollar trade deal between American Ethane and Nanshan Group which was signed on November 9, 2017 before President Xi Jinping, President Donald Trump, the Politburo of the Peoples Republic of China and senior members of the US Cabinet.
Texas is home to Mount Belvieu the largest trading Hub of Ethane in the world, including home to some of the largest gas companies in the US. As the Consulate General in Houston, Abassador Li endorsed and gave support to the American Ethane/Nanshan supply contract which is pending approval by the National Development and Reform Commission. The American Ethane project is seen as a very positive and much needed step in the trade relations between the US and China. “On behalf of American Ethane, I was very honored to meet Ambassador Li and gain his support for a project that provides a way to address the US Trade Deficient in a positive way that is a win win for both the US and China. We are both proud to have had the support of both President Trump and President Jinping, and a twenty year partnership between our Houston based company and Nanshan in Shendong province.”
Energy & Minerals Group, a major MLP investors in US gas production and transportation, recently announced a conditional supply agreement with American Ethane to support 7.2 million tons of yearly US ethane export to China.
In 2015 episode of CNN documentary Inside Man, academy award winning director Morgan Spurlock told the life story of the local New Orleans attorney and entrepreneur John Houghtaling. See https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=34pjuvD4_oU The episode followed the humble beginnings of Houghtaling’s family on food assistance, and how Houghtaling worked his way up from a file room to him becoming the managing partner of the Gauthier firm one of the nations most legendary law practices. Spurlock who followed Houghtaling’s from living in New Orleans most celebrated Mansion on St. Charles to racing Ferrari’s, asked Houghtaling if he considered himself a success. Houghtaling said not yet, and took CNN on a tour of his latest oil and gas project that Houghtaling said could make him a billionaire.
If a deal announced last November is any indication, Houghtaling may have done just that. At a signing ceremony witnessed by President Trump and President Xi in Bejing, Houghtaling is scheduled to sign a 26 Billion dollar gas contract between one of China’s largest companies, the Nanshan Group, and American Ethane, a company Houghtaling co-founded and serves as CEO to export Liquid Ethane internationally. In March of 2015 American Ethane completed a FEED study and co-development of an ethane export terminal on the boarder of Louisiana and Texas, with the annual export capacity of 10 million tons per year. The Nanshan Group/American Ethane deal is the largest and longest gas sales contract with China to date and could open up the shale revolution to China. Nanshan group is one of China’s most successful Chinese companies having an ownership in Virgin Atlantic. As governor of Indiana, Vice President Mike Pence saw Nanshan build a billion dollar aluminum plant in his home state. Under the deal Nanshan agreed to a binding take or pay contract with Houghtaling’s company to purchase an annual amount of 2.5 million tons of Ethane a year for twenty years. The gross sale amount exceeds $26 billion. The volume of gas from this one contract is so large that no less than eight 900 foot long Ethane supertankers will be build to shuttle the gas. Billions of dollars of infrastructure is engineered to be built for the export terminal on the gulf coast and Nanshan will invest over two billion dollars in infrastructure to take and process ethane into ethylene the feedstock of plastics.
President Trump is scheduled for a trade Summit with President Xi to highlight major infrastructure deals with China. While several international deals between the US and China are to be highlighted, a few trade deals were considered of such national importance to be witnessed in a signing ceremony between President Trump and President Xi. Senator Kennedy, Senator Cassidy submitted and supported Houghtaling’s deal to be highlighted at the summit. The government of China reportedly issued a report to the US Commerce department listing the American Ethane/Nanshan group contract as the number one contract to be witnessed by Trump and Xi. Houghtaling stated “it’s an exciting moment not just for our company but for our country. The US is now available the largest gas producer in the world and China is the largest market. Our deal with Nanshan not only helps put a significant dent in the trade balance between China and the US, it helps our national security by linking critical infrastructure to US gas supply.” According to Houghtaling his company has signed addition MOUs for the entire 10 million tons a year capacity of the terminal on 20 year take or pay agreements, an amount that, if realized will be a gross sales of over 100 billion dollars.. “. Additionally our project is expected to produce 2,000 construction jobs in the gulf area hit the hardest by Hurricane Harvey.
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John W. Houghtaling, II is an American entrepreneur, nationally known attorney, and the CEO and co founder of American Ethane. His business centers on the property and contract rights and strategic project development in the energy sector. From 1998-2004 he was involved in the development of the 144MW NejapaPower Plant, the first IPP power plant in El Salvador. Houghtaling later became the CEO of Ocean Therapy Solutions, an oil service company he founded with business partner, Kevin Costner. At the same time, he co-founded Ocean Management Group, a partnership between Ocean Therapy Solutions and Edison Chouest Offshore. Houghtaling served as government Liaison Counsel for British Petroleum in the aftermath of the Horizon oil spill disaster in negotiations between BP and the State of Louisiana. In early 2011 he was recruited by several private international industrialists to become the U.S. managing partner of several oil and gas holdings and investments with a multi-billion dollar investment strategy in the natural gas revolution in the United States. He holds ownership in a 200,000 acre oil and gas production play in the Pearsall of South Texas. In 2013 he successfully negotiated a deal between Pilot Flying J, the largest privately held fuel retailer in the US, and Western Express, Pilot’s largest customer in a national and complex fuel dispute. In 2013 he co-founded American Ethane Company, LLC, a project to build the world’s largest Ethane Export Terminal. Houghtaling is negotiating off-take agreements for American Ethane to supply 10 million tons of ethane for ethylene production in China and for power generation to several power plant developments across the world..
Houghtaling is also the majority owner of the law firm, Gauthier, Houghtaling and Williams, a law firm with a 42 year old legacy that paved the way to the $358 billion dollar U.S. tobacco settlement in 1998. Houghtaling served as chairman of over 60 charitable and civic campaigns in Louisiana and Houston.
