WV’s Top Brass Meeting with Chinese Next Week re $83.7B Deal

A little over two weeks ago MDN wrote a post speculating about whether or not China's deal to invest $83.7 billion in West Virginia shale and petrochemicals is now dead, given the current "trade war" with China (see $83.7B Chinese Investment in WV Shale & Petchem Still Alive?). In June, Chinese officials were supposed to attend the Northeast U.S. Petrochemical Construction Conference in Pittsburgh to announce the first round of investments in WV. However, Brian Anderson, director of the West Virginia University Energy Institute, said given the trade war now on with China, the officials elected to stay home instead. Anderson said, “The pending trade war has put this project in jeopardy” (see Trade War Puts $83.7 Billion Chinese Investment in WV on Hold). But a few weeks later Anderson appeared to change his tune. He told a reporter, “In terms of the development process, we continue to move forward...We’re even working on the next potential visits by officials and team members, so it’s not just the high-level executives, but development teams" (see $83.7B Chinese Investment in WV Shale & Petchem Still Alive?). Now comes word that next week, on Aug. 9, both WV Congressman David McKinley and WV Gov. Jim Justice will meet with Chinese officials "to discuss the future of the investment deal." No word on whether that meeting is in WV or in China. McKinley would not comment on specifics about the meeting, but he did say he thinks the $83.7 billion Chinese investment is still on track and will happen...

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