Chinese firms are looking into building a $4.5 billion methanol production and deep-port export facility near Texas City, Texas. If completed, it would be one of the largest plants of its kind in the world.

Fund Connell USA Energy and Chemical Investment Corp, an arm of Connell Group of China and Sino Life Insurance Co, secured a lease on a 900-acre property on Shoal Point in Galveston County, where it will begin pre-design and feasibility studies with a target date of mid-2015 for a final decision.

"The abundant sources of natural gas in the Gulf Coast region and the expansion of the Panama Canal in 2016 make this location attractive for the production and export of methanol in large quantities as feedstock for the growing petrochemical industry in China," Sino Life Chairman Zhang Jun said in a news release.