Final Decision: Axiall Building Ethane Cracker in LA…NE Ethane?
Two years ago Axiall Corporation, the former Georgia Gulf/PPG, announced a plan to build a $3 billion ethane cracker/petrochemical facility in Louisiana. The facility, as we noted at the time, will almost certainly use at least some ethane coming from the Marcellus/Utica region (see Axiall Announces New Cracker Plant for LA, Fed by NE Ethane). As we know only too well, making a “final investment decision” (FID) about whether or not to spend $3 billion of a company’s money (or more correctly go into debt and spend other people’s money), and take upward of 3-4 years to build a plant, is not something you just decide to do willy-nilly. It takes a looooooooooong time to get to that point. Shell announced a cracker for Pennsylvania back in 2012 and they still haven’t made an FID. It was certainly a good sign from Axiall when they announced a partnership with Lotte Chemical for their new Louisiana cracker project (see 4th World Class Marcellus/Utica Ethane Cracker…in Louisiana??). Lightening has struck! Last Friday Axiall and Lotte announced an FID has been reached and indeed they are moving forward. Horray! Of course it would be more exciting if that plant were located in PA, WV or OH rather than Lake Charles, LA (where they have enough crackers already). But we’ll take these victories when and where we can. The expected startup date is 2019…
Read More “Final Decision: Axiall Building Ethane Cracker in LA…NE Ethane?”
Wait a minute! We thought the proposed Odebrecht ethane cracker plant near Parkersburg in Wood County, WV was all but dead. Lifeless. In April the company said it was “re-evaluating plans” to build it (see 
Another piece of the puzzle slides into place with respect to the $5.7 billion ethane cracker project in Belmont County, OH planned by Thailand-based PTT Chemical and financial partner Marubeni Corp. from Japan (see 
An expert speaking at the Utica Summit III yesterday in Stark, OH said he believes the Marcellus/Utica region will see three, possibly four, ethane crackers built. 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…
Shell is currently spending an undisclosed amount of money (millions of dollars) to build a bridge to a site they now own where they may one day build a $2-$3 billion ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, PA (see 
In February 2013 MDN brought you news about plans from Appalachian Resins (AR) to build a polyethelene (PE) manufacturing plant complete with a “baby” ethane cracker. The original plan was to build it in the Wheeling, WV area. However, a year later the location shifted across the border to Monroe County, OH. As late as April of this year AR was still committed to the project (see 
The one ethane cracker plant project announced for the Marcellus/Utica region that once seemed the mostly likely to proceed now seems the least likely to move forward–the Brazilian-based Odebrecht project planned for Wood County, WV. The ASCENT (Appalachina Shale Cracker Enterprise) project seemed to have the most momentum in 2014 (see 
While two, possibly three, major ethane cracker plant projects are being considered for the Marcellus/Utica region, there are six ethane crackers currently being built in the Gulf Coast region. The kicker? Marcellus and Utica Shale ethane will feed some of, perhaps portions for all of, those six cracker plants. It’s a shame, really. We could be reaping the rewards of a massive influx of jobs and investment not only by building an ethane cracker, but with the satellite businesses that will locate around it. Instead, much of that investment and those jobs are slipping away to the Gulf via NGL pipelines…
An interesting article in the Philadelphia Inquirer provides some of the history, and an update, for the Marcus Hook refinery in the Philly area. You may recall that Sunoco Logistics Partners purchased the refinery and is in the process of turning it into an NGL export facility–to send ethane, propane and other NGLs to locations along the U.S. coastline and internationally to Europe. What you may not know (what we sure didn’t know) is that Sunoco LP hopes to one day build a propane cracker at the site–a facility that will convert propane into propylene, the raw material used to make plastics. Who knew?! This would be yet another cracker plant that would compete, in a small way, with the proposed Shell cracker plant planned for the Pittsburgh area…