4C — July 15 - 28, 2016 — Pennsylvania — M id A tlantic
Real Estate Journal
www.marejournal.com
P ennsylvania
hell Chemical Appalachia recently announced that it has finalized plants to By Gary R. Brown, P.E., RT Environmental Services, Inc. Shell Chemical Appalachia announces finalization of plans to build Cracker Plant S
Construction of the giant polyethylene complex on the site of a former zinc smelter in Beaver County will create up to 6,000 construction jobs and 600 permanent jobs when it is completed in the next decade, the company said. The plant represents the kind of major downstream economic development envisioned when the state welcomed shale gas development. Penns y l van i a o f f i c i a l s courted Shell for more than four years to build the ethane cracker in Beaver County. The plant will convert ethane into
ethylene, a chemical utilized to produce rubber, an array of chemical and plastic products, and other everyday household items. The state legislature in 2012 agreed to give Shell approximately $1.65 billion in tax credits over 25 years, in the hope that the plant will become a catalyst for a manufacturing renaissance and attracting other manufacturers who uti- lize ethylene to create products, thereby further increasing job opportunities in the region. "This is not just another com- pany that is bringing 'X' num- ber of jobs to Pennsylvania," Gov. Wolf said in an interview Tuesday. "This is actually something that is creating a foundation for a whole new set of manufacturing products." The Shell plant will require a daily diet of 105,000 barrels of ethane, one of the family of natural gas liquids - including propane and butane - that are produced in the "wet" gas areas of the Marcellus Shale in south- western Pennsylvania, as well as the Utica Shale in Ohio and West Virginia. Natural gas liquids like eth- ane are now being shipped out of the Marcellus by pipelines to plants on the Gulf Coast, Canada, and also to Marcus Hook, where Sunoco Logistics Partners is loading the mate- rial on ships for export to Eu- ropean crackers. Shale-gas producing states have labored to convince manu- facturers to build local plants to retain some value-added production. Wolf credited the Corbett administration with targeting Shell and sponsoring the tax break. "They were asking a big com- pany like Shell to take a fresh look at this industry and what it could be, not what it is," Wolf said. "My administration's job was to keep making that point." The ethane cracker, which breaks down or "cracks" large molecules into smaller ones, will produce 1.5 million metric tons of ethylene a year. Shell also will build three other man- ufacturing units to convert the ethylene into polyethylene pel- lets, a common form of plastic. Shell would not disclose the project's price. Sasol, a South African petrochemical com- pany, is building a similar-sized cracker in Lake Charles, LA, along with six manufacturing units, for $11 billion. "This is so huge, it's going continued on page 12C
move forward w i t h c o n - struction of a long-awaited m u l t i b i l - l i o n - d o l l a r petrochemi- cal plant in W e s t e r n Pennsy l va -
Gary R. Brown
nia. Business and political leaders say the development of this ethane cracker plant will transform Pennsylvania’s shale-gas industry.
The former zinc smelter in Beaver County where Shell will build giant polyethylene complex.
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