Posted on 08/29/2017 10:20:41 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
CANONSBURG, Pa.–West Virginia University researchers believe a Marcellus and Utica shale ethane storage hub could help create $36 billion in investment and more than 100,000 permanent jobs — some of which could occur at industrial sites left behind by Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, Weirton Steel and Ormet Corp.
During a Tuesday conference, WVU Energy Institute Director Brian Anderson said drillers throughout the region are now producing about 460,000 barrels of ethane per day — almost three times the total amount of ethane expected to be used per day at the Royal Dutch Shell ethane cracker set for Beaver County, Pa. and the potential PTT Global Chemical cracker at Dilles Bottom, combined.
For several years, industry leaders have said one of the major hurdles to building ethane crackers in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania is a lack of storage capacity, which they said is necessary to ensure a continued supply of ethane to the plant in the case of a pipeline rupture. On Tuesday, Anderson and fellow researchers identified several areas throughout the region that feature favorable geology for such ethane storage.
All or portions of several Upper Ohio Valley counties have areas meeting the researchers’ specifications, including Hancock, Brooke, Marshall, Wetzel and Tyler in West Virginia and Jefferson, Harrison and Monroe in Ohio.
“Appalachia is poised for a renaissance of the petrochemical industry due to the availability of natural gas liquids,” Anderson said. “A critical path for this rebirth is through the development of infrastructure to support the industry. The Appalachian Storage Hub study is a first step for realizing that necessary infrastructure.”
Ethane is one of the liquid forms of natural gas prevalent in the Marcellus and Utica region. An ethane cracker transforms this material into ethylene, which eventually becomes plastic.
About 12 miles south of the proposed PTT ethane cracker, Denver-based Energy Storage Ventures hopes to begin storing ethane before the end of 2019 at Clarington. Officials said the ethane would be pumped into and out of the underground caverns through pipelines.
This portion of Monroe County is in one of the zones researchers identify as having the “top-rated” geology for ethane storage. The three criteria for an area to qualify as “top-rated” are:
∫ an underground wall of salt that is at least 100 feet thick;
∫ a wall of limestone at least 40 feet thick; or
∫ existing sandstone reservoirs that can be converted for use.
Some Marcellus and Utica shale ethane is now being shipped out of the region for cracking via pipelines such as the Sunoco Logistics Mariner East and Mariner West projects, as well as the ATEX Express.
Kinder Morgan is also building the $500 million Utopia Pipeline to send up to 75,000 barrels of ethane to Canada each day.
Anderson said these operations prevent the region from gaining the liquid’s full economic development benefit.
“Ethane, propane and butane have much more value than we are realizing,” he said.
Anderson said the process of creating more than 100,000 jobs would take several years, or even decades, to complete. He said part of this could involve public-private partnerships to redevelop former industrial sites, including former steel mills, aluminum plants, glass factories, etc.
He said some of these sites may be eligible for cleanup grants under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program.
“We have a lot of old manufacturing sites that have been left behind. The sites could be redeveloped for use and given new life,” Anderson said.
West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association Executive Director Anne Blankenship said having an ethane storage hub in Appalachia would benefit the market in the face of catastrophic events, including storms such as Harvey in Texas and Louisiana.
“The debilitating effects of a hurricane on the Gulf Coast point to the need for creation of another large storage hub in the U.S., geographically distant from the Gulf Coast,” she said.
The study was funded via a $100,000 grant from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, along with another $100,000 from numerous drilling, fracking and processing companies.
“Recognition of the enormous opportunity for economic development based upon shale gas, including downstream modern manufacturing, was the motivation for the governors of West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania to agree to collaborate to maximize the opportunity,” Benedum Foundation President William Getty said of the October 2015 agreement.
Paul Boulier, vice president for Team Northeast Ohio, said the report will provide potential developers the data they need to make informed investment decisions.
“Being able to store valuable feedstock will help develop midstream and downstream opportunities that will make us even more competitive on a global and national basis,” he said.
Multiple wins if this can be brought to fruition.
Jobs, $$$, revival and pissing off leftist environmental snowflakes.
I’m not questioning you, 2DV.
But we don’t really need to make more Oil jobs. What we need is to bring back manufacturing jobs, from China.
That is what is needed. That is still not happening.
The above is from the first paragraph.
Not going to create 100,000 permanent jobs. May be that many during construction and drilling, but not permanent.
460K barrels of ethane a day seems like one hell of a lot. Ethane is a lot more valuable than methane (generally thought of as the main component of nat gas) and a fair amount easier to deal with.
What do you base that statement on?
https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html
We run a MASSIVE trade deficit with China.
That is not sustainable.
Trump has been in office seven months, not seven years. After seven months in the Army I was barely in my first assignment and really didn’t know what I was doing yet.
I’m all for Trump.
But he has not done anything about our global trade mess.
There are masses of both Dems and Republicans, who are sold out to the globalists.
Both parties have been globalist for the entire last generation.
But Trump won partly, because a lot of American voters do NOT support what is happening in the world.
They voted for Trump. It is up to him, to live up to what he said when he was campaigning.
(and to build the wall)
Just saying.
I don’t know who this Ethane Storage is, but I would personally like to thank him, or her.
That struck me as a huge number, too. You clearly aren’t going to get that for construction or operation of the ethane storage facility. I think the study is saying that is the total number of jobs for the production and storage of ethane as well as all the downstream jobs producing things from the ethane. The article says it will take decades to achieve that number of jobs.
Chinese supplier CW Bearing opens new manufacturing facility, brings jobs for U.S. rust-belt region
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-08/30/c_136566371.htm
Do you use any of these products? Or do you use products that used these industrial products as inputs?
“Not going to create 100,000 permanent jobs. May be that many during construction and drilling, but not permanent.”
Not correct is your post. The Ohio Valley of West Virgina is a complex of industrial petrochemical complexes. The natural gases below their feet will be the basis of great economic wealth. These jobs will be long term. I drilled wells in my past. The wells I drilled gave great economic boon to the area when I left to drill wells in other areas. I am retired now. I miss the oilfield. It was wild and insane. I really miss it.
The key is the Trump energy policy:
In fact, the tremendous increase in natural gas supply has actually revived America’s plastics industry, since natural gas is a perfect base material to make plastics. Low energy cost and abundant supplies of oil and gas
Feedstock for various petrochemicals, agrochemicals industries.
The USA will end up owning big chunks of these industries The U.S. is expected to see a wave of petrochemical plant openings between now and next year. Those plants represent about $50 billion of $160 billion in manufacturing investment earmarked by the industry since 2012, according to James Fitterling, president and COO of Dow Chemical. Among them are several big ethylene plants, including one expected to be opened by Dow in Freeport, Texas, in the second quarter.
"It's about 1.5 million tons of new capacity for us. It will be up in the second quarter sometime," said Fitterling, speaking in Houston at the CERAWeek conference, sponsored by IHS Markit. He said Dow also opened a billion-dollar propane dehydrogenation plant in Freeport at the end of 2015. "That was the first megaproject we've done on the Gulf Coast for quite some time."
Exxon Mobil this week announced a $20 billion spending program to expand its manufacturing capacity along the Gulf Coast, including some previously announced investment. The announcement came at CERAWeek.
Industry executives say this is the first big wave of chemical plant construction in decades.
President Donald J. Trump tweeted congratulations on Exxon's investment and promise of jobs. But the petrochemical renaissance has been building for several years. Trump's policy may unleash more if it results in the creation of pipelines and other infrastructure.
"The U.S. has gone from a shale gas boom to a petrochemical boom," said Scott Sheffield, CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources. While natural gas industry experts discussed the outlook for a long period of low gas prices at the conference, the petrochemical industry described what only can be viewed as a boom in an industry that had been declining in the United States.
Fitterling said there was a wave of plants that started construction back in the 2012 time frame, and between 2017 and 2018, there will be approximately $50 billion of that total $160 billion of capacity up and running. "These are all downstream petrochemical plants, including ethylene facilities, propylene facilities and all the downstream products associated with them. Another wave of plants — some that started and some that were a little bit delayed and slid out to the 2019 time frame — represent another $12 billion," Fitterling said. There are more than 20 big projects and other smaller ones, all which should be completed by 2023.
Another wave of new capacity is likely to be planned after that, Fitterling said. There are estimates that the current planned investment could generate 70,000 to 80,000 direct jobs.
Just a little bit of the President Donald J. Trump leadership in MAGA.
There is a lot of equipment that is used by the oil industry and it has to be made somewhere.
And due to the “progressive” Prince Andrew of Cuomo, New York has no gas. None.
Or in the case of foreign terrorists, or antifa or earth warriors seeking to make a statement. It is unfortunate; but a major overhead cost of creating jobs and an industrial base is opponents who lose the debate in politics and lose the heart of the people, but continue to wage the guerrilla war and target sites that will make the biggest boom on TV.
So, you are mad that Trump hasn’t fixed “the global trade mess,” but you simultaneously state that “masses” of Republicans and Democrats are “sold out to globalists.”
So, you are basically mad that Donald Trump is not an all-powerful god.
You display no rationality, at all.
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