Shell Announces Location of Ethane Cracker Plant

Stop Press: Shell Chemical has selected a location in Beaver County, Pennsylvania to potentially build an ethane cracker plant. Shell announced yesterday afternoon that the company has signed a land option agreement with Horsehead Corporation to “evaluate a site” near Monaca, PA, which is about 35 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, along the Ohio River (see the inset map). The site is about 15 miles from the borders of both West Virginia and Ohio, so Shell chose a location about as close to the tri-state border as it could get.

This is headliner news because the facility itself will mean at least $2 billion of investment to build, creating some 10,000 jobs both to build it and to operate it after it’s built. One of the components of “wet gas” or natural gas liquids found more often in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio is ethane. An ethane cracker plant chemically “cracks” the ethane into ethylene, which is a raw material used to make plastics and other materials. With an abundant supply of wet Marcellus and Utica Shale gas, the plant will have plenty of cheap ethane to crack.

Once the plant is built, other businesses that use cheap ethylene to manufacture plastics will also locate in the vicinity of the plant. The multiplier effect will be huge in the entire region—some estimates are as high as $15-$20 billion of new economic activity could come as a result of the plant.

All three states lobbied Shell heavily, offering various incentives to locate the plant in their state. A few weeks ago, MDN readers and MDN editor Jim Willis had some fun predicting where the plant may go. Jim was wrong! He predicted it would be built in West Virginia’s panhandle for a variety of reasons (see this MDN story). However, MDN readers guessed correctly. In a poll taken Feb. 12-18, 42 percent of MDN readers said the plant would be built in PA, 31 percent said OH and 27 percent said WV. Kudos to MDN’s readers!

To view this content, log into your member account. (Not a member? Join Today!)