Small Biz Looks to Plug in to Shell Ethane Cracker in SWPA
Some of the first businesses that will profit from the mighty Shell ethane cracker being built in Beaver County, PA will be small, local businesses. Restaurants, banquet halls, hotels, drug stores, real estate…the list goes on. But even small businesses that want a piece of the Shell cracker plant action don’t automatically have smooth sailing. Trying to get Shell to promote a business to its workers is hard work. Businesses report talking to Shell and being told that the company won’t help them by promoting them to cracker plant workers (a bit un-neighborly if you ask us). But that’s the life of an entrepreneur. You encounter brick wall after brick wall and you find a way to go through it, or over it, or around it, or under it. That’s what several small businesses in Beaver County are doing with Shell…
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In February MDN brought you exclusive news that Shell had begun approaching landowners in Beaver County to get them to sign easements for two ethane pipelines to feed the mighty cracker plant they plan to build in the county (see 
Question: How can your business take advantage of the development of a petrochemical industry in your backyard? That was the question and premise behind a new white paper/report from the Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation and Commercialization Center. The white paper, titled “Shell Petrochemical Complex (“Cracker”) Project Overview – The First Step in Establishing a Regional Petrochemical Sector” (full copy below) provides an excellent overview of the coming ethane cracker in Beaver County, PA–with details for how and who can benefit from it. The paper is mainly aimed at manufacturers that will be able to leverage the output from the plant–but there’s plenty of other great information in this paper to inspire and get your creative business juices flowing. Take time to download and read it. The future of your business may depend on it!…
In June, Shell announced a final investment decision (FID) to move forward with building a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant in Pennsylvania (see 
This story is unbelievable on so many levels. A pointy-headed liberal who cloisters himself inside the insular Beltway of Washington, DC made a trip to Pittsburgh last week to talk to a small class of 70 students at Carnegie Mellon University. In this talk the lib proclaimed that the “incentives” provided by PA to Shell to lure a cracker plant to the state are, essentially, monies the state didn’t have to spend and a burden to the taxpayers of PA because Ohio and West Virginia may also reap some of the benefits of the cracker (without “paying” for it). The lib’s operating assumption is that 100% of everyone’s money belongs to the all-knowing government–including money made by big, evil corporations like Shell. He further states that by granting a few exemptions on taxes to Shell, PA is taking money out of the pockets of common folk. His philosophy and assumptions are so twisted it’s beyond belief. What’s more twisted is that the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote a major story about the talk–as if it’s news…
A great article in Investor’s Business Daily explores the link between shale gas and the “explosive expansion” of the U.S. petrochemical industry. Part of the petchem supply chain is finding a cheap source of ethylene, the raw material used in making all sorts of plastics products. Manufacturers get ethylene from ethane cracker plants. The article discusses that link, and the reasons why Shell chose to locate their new multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant near Pittsburgh. As you can guess, economics play a major role in such a decision. Here are the specific economics that convinced Shell that PA is a good bet…
A banker, a real estate developer and a natural gas drilling company rep walk into a bar… No wait! This isn’t a joke! A banker, a real estate developer and a natgas drilling rep were panelists at seminar held yesterday, organized by the Pittsburgh Business Times. Even though there has been a major slowdown in Marcellus/Utica drilling, all three panelists were upbeat and optimistic–in no small part because of the coming Shell ethane cracker in nearby Beaver County. One comment made about the Shell cracker: “We’re not just building a facility; we’re building an industry.” That’s just how major the Shell project will be in the greater Pittsburgh area. Another comment: “The Marcellus Shale is not in the tank…It has slowed down, which is typical of industries that are sensitive to price cycles, [but] it’s consistent, affordable and is stable.” More interesting tidbits from the PBT soiree…
We suppose we should have known, but we didn’t. We didn’t know that Pennsylvania has a Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). In fact, the DCED has its own cabinet-level Secretary–Dennis Davin–appointed by Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf in January 2015 when Wolf assumed office. Davin has stayed largely under the radar–until now. Wolf has sent Davin out on a road show to promote the forthcoming Shell ethane cracker plant. Davin is conducting roundtable discussions in various communities around PA to generate ideas on how local businesses can benefit from the cracker. So far he’s visited Beaver County (where the cracker will be built), Lawrence County and Washington County. The DCED is flooding the airways with press releases about Davin’s cracker road show…
All the way back in February MDN brought you exclusive news that Shell had begun approaching landowners in Beaver County to get them to sign easements for two ethane pipelines to feed the mighty cracker plant they plan to build in the county (see 
We sometimes run Top 10 lists for the Marcellus/Utica, or even the U.S., but what about a Top 10 list of natural gas producers in the entire world? We spotted an article on the Forbes magazine website that lists the Top 10 natgas producers for the entire world. By our count, eight of the ten have major or minor operations in the Marcellus/Utica. Cool! Here’s the list…
WellDog (what a great name!) announced on Monday the launch of a new service called Shale SweetSpotter (another great name!). Clever marketing folks at WellDog, we’ll grant them that. Shale SweetSpotter is “the first commercial reservoir-evaluation analysis technology specific to unconventional natural gas.” In English please! “We’ve just developed a way to tell drillers where oil and gas is locked away in shale layers in the acreage they’ve leased.” Apparently it’s pretty darned good. WellDog partnered up with Shell to test their service in the Marcellus and the field trials were declared “successful”…
Although he still wants to tax the Marcellus Shale industry out of his state, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (with the dubious title of “most liberal governor in the U.S.,” see 
Can a single petrochemical facility, like Shell’s proposed ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, “rebirth” all of Pennsylvania’s moribund manufacturing base? That would be a resounding “Yes!” according to Marcellus Shale Coalition president Dave Spigelmyer and Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association president Dave Taylor. Writing a column in the Harrisburg Patriot-News, the two Daves make the case for just how big a hairy deal the coming Shell cracker in PA really is…