Posted on 04/18/2016 4:39:43 PM PDT by RS_Rider
The global crash in oil prices and resulting squeeze in financing available to energy companies have raised questions about whether two companies will build ethane cracker plants in the Marcellus and Utica shale regions.
The head of one of the top shale gas producers in the area, however, predicts both petrochemical facilities will be built in the next decade.
We will see one to two ... I believe two cracker plants built in this region, Consol Energy Inc. CEO Nick DeIuliis said Friday during the University of Pittsburgh's Energy Law and Policy Institute gathering Downtown.
Such facilities would take ethane a liquid that comes up with natural gas from many shale wells in Western Pennsylvania, Northern West Virginia and Eastern Ohio and convert it to ethylene and polyethylene, the building blocks of many common plastic products.
If you look at the demand for ethylene and plastics within 500 miles of this region, 50 percent of the demand exists within that radius, said DeIuliis, who noted he had no inside knowledge of building plans.
Advocates for building here, where ethane is plentiful and cheap since the shale boom began 10 years ago, say their construction would spur more manufacturing in the area as the makers of those plastic products seek to locate close to the feedstock.
Despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent on two potential sites in the region, though, their construction is not certain.
Royal Dutch Shell chose the site of the former Horsehead Holdings zinc smelter in Beaver County four years ago as a potential location, and has spent the past two years preparing it for construction.
(Excerpt) Read more at triblive.com ...
I’ll have some cheese to go with those two crackers.
Racism!
Who are you callin' 'cracker'?
“Ill have some cheese to go with those two crackers.”
We used to have a NABISCO plant here... Big Cracker.
Just make sure NY State is shut out.
“Just make sure NY State is shut out.”
They’re to “aware” to participate in such things as cracking and fracking.
Cuomo is a fool
Make it happen!
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