Air Liquide recently signed a new long-term contract with Xinneng Energy Company. Under the terms of the new agreement, Air Liquide will invest more than EUR 60 million in an ASU (Air Separation Unit), with a total capacity of 2,700 tonnes of oxygen per day. Expected to start operations in the second quarter of 2018, the new ASU will supply industrial gases including oxygen and nitrogen to ENN Ecological Holdings Company.

The gases will be used in the customer's Light Hydrocarbon Project, which produces 200,000 tonnes per year of light hydrocarbon, a chemical product widely used in the energy industry. The ASU, located in ENN's industrial park in Dalateqi of Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, will be built by Air Liquide's Engineering and Construction teams using technologies to offer energy efficiency as well as optimal reliability and safety, and will be owned and operated by Air Liquide.