Philadelphia Loses $500M Petchem Plant from Lack of Pipelines

Lack of pipelines for natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs) in the Northeast has very real economic and financial consequences. Yesterday the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce held a program titled “Fueling A Downstream Economy” in downtown Philly. One of the speakers was from petrochemical giant Braskem America Inc. If the name looks familiar, it should. Braskem and their Brazilian parent company Odebrecht are still considering building an ethane cracker plant in West Virginia (see A Pulse! WV Ethane Cracker Project Comes Back from the Dead). Another project Braskem wants to build is a $500 million polypropylene (i.e. plastics) plant. The decision on where to build it was between Philadelphia and Texas. Even though their preference was Philly, Braskem, in the end, selected Texas because of lack of pipeline infrastructure in Philly. A real heart-breaker. The brutal fact is that PA is not moving fast enough to approve new pipeline infrastructure. That was the message delivered loud and clear yesterday during the Chamber event…