in the Appalachian Basin would reduce the current risks of the highly concentrated petrochemical industry along the Gulf Coast. Remember, just a couple of years ago, Hurricane Harvey showed that one bad weather event can cripple the U.S. chemical sector for weeks. Both President Donald Trump and Department of Energy Secretary Rick Perry have voiced strong approval for building out an ethane and petrochemical hub in the Appalachian Basin. At a recent meeting of the National Petroleum Council, Rick Perry commented... There is an incredible opportunity to establish an ethane storage and distribution hub in the Appalachian region and build a robust petrochemical industry in Appalachia. As our report shows, there is sufficient global need and enough regional resources to help the U.S. gain a significant share of the global petrochemical market. The Trump administration would also support an Appalachia hub to strengthen our energy and manufacturing security by increasing our geographic production diversity. The bottom line... All signs point toward a coming chemical boom in the Rust Belt . In the decades to come, this manufacturing renaissance will create tens of billions of dollars in economic activity and at least 100,000 jobs for folks who’ve been down on their luck. And yet, almost no one is paying attention... at least not yet.
EBITDA in 2020. This economic advantage is why Shell is building its ethylene plant in the Rust Belt. It’s only a matter of time before other companies follow Shell’s lead... Two additional ethylene plants are in the planning stages for potential construction in the Rust Belt region – a facility in West Virginia with a capacity of 1 million metric tons per year and one in Ohio with a capacity of 1.5 million metric tons per year. The Department of Energy expects these plants could start operating sometime in the early 2020s. And that would be just the beginning... A 2017 study from the ACC suggested the Appalachian Basin could support at least six “world-scale petrochemical complexes, in addition to a number of smaller facilities.” The ACC believes these plants could create roughly 100,000 jobs and nearly $30 billion in direct economic output for the region. If these plants were created, they would also create billions in ancillary economic activity. That could include a multibillion-dollar ethane-storage facility and trading hub... In late 2018, the Department of Energy – at the request of Congress – released a 91-page report, “Ethane Storage and Distribution Hub in the United States.” As the name implies, the report studied the potential economic impact of creating infrastructure for large-scale storage and distribution of ethane feedstock. Specifically, it looked at the Appalachian Basin. Among the many findings, the report concluded that establishing this infrastructure
This manu- facturing renaissance will create tens of billions of dollars in economic activity and at least 100,000 jobs for folks who’ve been down on their luck.
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July 2019
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