Posted on 09/04/2015 6:09:31 AM PDT by thackney
Ohio is standing on third base and ready to cross home plate in the development of a proposed $5.7 billion ethane cracker plant in eastern Ohio, Gov. John Kasich said Thursday.
Kasich joined the CEO of the Thai company that wants to build the plant in outlining plans for a $100 million outlay over the next year for engineering and design work at the site to determine the project's future.
Columbus Business First broke the story in April that the plant was being considered in Belmont County, near the heart of oil and natural gas exploration in the Utica shale field. The processing plant would take ethane, a component of natural gas, and "crack" it into etheyene, which is used in the petrochemical industry.
“If we didn’t have the work force,” the plant wouldn’t be possible, Kasich said at a Statehouse gathering.
Petrochemical complexes, such as crackers, are huge capital investments with long lifespans and they need highly skilled workers, including chemical engineers, chemists and lab techs, to operate them.
PTT Global Chemical Public Company Ltd. CEO Supattanapong Punmeechaow called the $100 million commitment a milestone in the project. The company has signed contracts with two groups of engineering firms led by Bechtel Enterprises Holdings Inc. and Fluor Corp. (NYSE:FLR) for engineering design and cost estimates.
Punmeechaow noted, too, the availability of skilled labor in Ohio as a factor in the company’s decision making. He expects to know whether the project is realistic by the end of 2016.
Kasich, said the $100 million is “a significant investment to get to the next milestone.” The plant would take more than four years to build, he said.
Economic development group JobsOhio has been a big driver of the initiative. President John Minor said the plant represents the largest capital project in the group’s pipeline and would result in hundreds of direct and thousands of indirect jobs, including those needed to construct the facility.
If built, the petrochemical facility would take over land occupied by an aged coal-fired plant owned by FirstEnergy Corp.(NYSE:FE).
Watch for Black Lives Matters protests.
After all’s said and done, we’ll be working for Thialand there.
Nope....wait until the federal and state “mandates” bleed the Thais until they pop smoke and go home to get real pahd thai gai!
Can you even say Thai and cracker anymore?
Buy stock in PTT Global Chemical Public Company. They will be working for you. And the work performed in the US will pay US taxes. The money the company earns in the US will pay US corporate taxes.
Wow..6 posts and not ONE pic of a box of Ritz crackers?
“Buy stock ...”
Good point. Guess I was a little wrong on that one. Why, though, couldn’t American businessmen give birth to that cracker company?
Four year old company. Think they are in it for the long run?
As a white anglo-saxon protestant from the Upper-Midwest...I am offended by this headline!
I wantz my reprations!
.....and do you think they will share the same “Formosa” mindset.
There are a bunch of ethane crackers being built after the growth of shale gas and shale gas liquids. This is just one of several.
Even if they build it and sell it, the plant will be built and operating in the US.
More US manufacturing.
More US jobs, and good jobs.
More Petrochem feedstock produced in the US.
More demand for US produced ethane.
More demand for drilling and production of natural gas liquids from the Marcellus and Utica.
Maybe so, but I hope they don’t cut corners in construction, and make it a time bomb for whoever buys it later.
Actually in the petrochemical industry, units which "crack" ethane, propane, LPG, etc, into primarily ethylene, (and then several other C4+ products) are called "crackers"
oops, I meant primarily ethylene and propylene.
The industry calls it an ethane cracker.
The unit is called a cracker. Cracking is what the unit does. The investment is in a cracker.
What is a Cracker and Why Should I Care?
http://education.afpm.org/petrochemicals/what-is-a-cracker-and-why-should-i-care/
A Thai cracker in Ohio.
That will make the protesters heads spin.
“Thai cracker lives matter”
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