Shell Cracker Wastewater Discharge Becomes an Issue
Environmentalists are accusing Shell of using a loophole to discharge wastewater at their future ethane cracker that will exceed state limits for TDS (total dissolved solids). The issue may sound familiar. In 2011 Pennsylvania “requested” that municipal sewage treatment plants without specially outfitted equipment stop accepting and processing Marcellus wastewater (see PA DEP, Marcellus Shale Coalition Admit Drilling Wastewater Likely Contaminating Drinking Water). Almost immediately, it stopped, which was a good thing for the environment. The problem with shale wastewater (i.e. produced water) is its high TDS content, including bromide. When bromide combines with chlorine used in wastewater treatment plants, it combines to produce trihalomethanes, which (in some studies) indicate increased levels of cancer in humans (see MDN In-depth: Marcellus Wastewater Discharges via Municipal Sewage Treatment Plants into PA Waterways). Nasty stuff. While the Shell ethane cracker will not process shale wastewater, it will produce water with TDS as part of its process. Shell plans to use a permit from the plant it is replacing, an old zinc smelting plant, to discharge a certain volume of water with TDS. Environmentalists say the volume they will discharge is too much and if the plant were not using a pre-existing permit (swapping ethane cracking for zinc smelting) the volume of wastewater they want to discharge would not be approved. That is, Shell is leveraging a loophole, a permit grandfathered in, and the volume of wastewater it will discharge may endanger humans downriver. Legit? Not legit?…
Read More “Shell Cracker Wastewater Discharge Becomes an Issue”
In June 2015, a full year ahead of Shell’s final investment decision (FID) to build a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant complex in Beaver County, PA, the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection issued the project air quality permits–which was a “critical” requirement for Shell before making their decision (see 
The Potter Township Board of Supervisors convened a public hearing on Tuesday afternoon at 3 pm that ended up going until 1 am Wednesday. The intent was to approve Shell’s request for permits to begin construction on the multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant. That didn’t happen. Instead, the supervisors decided to hold another hearing Wednesday night. They did, and that hearing went for over an hour, in closed-door session. At the conclusion, the supervisors made a couple of requests from Shell, which Shell agreed to. However, the supervisors are still not ready to approve the permits and instead asked for more paperwork to be filed–by both Shell and the radical, anti-fossil fuel Big Green group Clean Air Council (from Philadelphia). It seems the antis are attempting to stop this project cold–which should have the good citizens of Beaver County (indeed the entire northeast) outraged. At any rate, we’re sure the permits will be forthcoming–but now it won’t happen until sometime in January…
On Monday MDN reported that the future site for an ethane cracker in Belmont County, OH is now cleared and ready for construction to begin (see 
The future site of a $5 billion petrochemical complex, including an ethane cracker, in Belmont County, OH is now cleared and essentially ready to begin building on. It has taken nearly a year, but the old R.E. Burger power plant that used to sit along the Ohio River is now just a memory. Belmont County officials say they expect PTT Global Chemical, the company that will build and operate the cracker, will make a final (positive) investment decision by the end of March–in just a few months’ time. Although the project began after Shell’s cracker project in Beaver County, PA, the PTT Global project in Belmont County has almost caught up with the Shell cracker project with respect to site readiness and building the actual buildings that will house the mighty cracker…
Hey, it’s great when the oil and gas industry is booming (figuratively)–when the drill bits are chewing away at rock and dirt and when fracking is blasting rocks apart. Love it! But it really sucks when the drill bits go quiet–especially for companies in the supply chain, those who sell goods and services to the industry. Obviously it helps to be diversified–to sell your goods and services to customers outside the o&g industry. That’s the approach taken by the prescient MMR Constructors Inc. MMR services a number of industries, but they LOVE the oil and gas industry–upstream, midstream and downstream. MMR, based in Baton Rouge, LA, is building a sizable new office in Lawrence, PA. They sell to the Marcellus/Utica industry. MMR is “hoping” Marcellus/Utica activity picks up again. But what they really have their eye on is the coming manufacturing boom that will follow Shell’s ethane cracker plant, once it is up and running…
This story reaches back just a bit, but we found it interesting and instructive. On Thursday, Sept. 29, MarkWest Energy gave a tour of its facilities in eastern Ohio. Ethane was one of the big topics of discussion. During that discussion, MarkWest’s vice president of operations, Dave Ledonne, said this about the announced Shell and hopefully soon-to-be announced PTT Global ethane cracker plants: “The cracker plants are the end game. They are what we really need.” What did he mean?…
One of the largest banks in the world (#11) is the German-based Deutsche Bank. They have major branches in dozens of countries, including the U.S. The Equity Research – North America operation of Deutsche Bank attended the Platts 9th Annual Appalachian Oil & Gas Conference in Pittsburgh earlier this week. The DB analyst who attended wrote up notes and shared them. We found the writeup interesting and thought you would too…
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!…
At last year’s Utica Summit III event held in Stark, OH, Tom Gellrich of consulting firm TopLine Analytics, a company that “closely follows ethane markets,” said he thinks the first ethane cracker to get built will be the Shell cracker plant in Beaver County, PA. He was right. Shell announced their official decision to move forward earlier this year. At that same event Gellrich said he thinks the Marcellus/Utica region will see three, possibly four, ethane crackers built (see