Ethane

Braskem | Economic Impact | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Odebrecht | Processing Plants | Statewide WV | West Virginia | Wood County

WV Trip to Brazil Reaffirms Cracker Plant: “Comfort Level Strong”
November 19, 2014November 19, 2014

Last week West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin led a trade delegation on a junket to Brazil to talk with officials from Odebrecht and Braskem about the $3 billion proposed ethane cracker plant/petrochemical complex the companies are planning for Parkersburg, WV (see WV Gov. Tomblin Leads Trade Mission to Brazil re Cracker Plant). Accompanying Tomblin on the trip were his wife, Secretary of Commerce Keith Burdette and several others. Fresh back from the trip both Tomblin and Burdette have very encouraging comments. Burdette in particular effused about the ASCENT cracker plant project, saying: “Our comfort level [that the project will happen] is very strong.” Burdette also said (perhaps in response to criticisms about an expensive taxpayer-funded trip to Brazil) that it was important for WV officials to spend time in their offices–as a courtesy and to show commitment to a project that the company is spending beaucoup bucks on in WV…
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Beaver County | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell

Shell (Finally) Buys Site for Cracker Plant in Beaver County, PA
November 7, 2014November 7, 2014

We’re still a long way from a decision by Shell on whether or not they will build a $2-$3 billion ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, PA. However, today the company took another giant step forward in that process. Shell has told the current owner of the site, Horsehead Corporation, that Shell is exercising their option to buy the property…
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Braskem | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Odebrecht | Processing Plants | Statewide WV | West Virginia | Wood County

WV Gov. Tomblin Leads Trade Mission to Brazil re Cracker Plant
November 7, 2014November 7, 2014

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s office has announced that the Governor and first lady, along with Keith Burdette, Secretary of the West Virginia Dept. of Commerce and several other officials, are going on a road trip to Brazil to babysit, er advance the ball on the ethane cracker plant planned for the Parkersburg, WV area by Brazilian company Odebrecht and its sister company Braskem. The trade delegation will discuss “next steps” with their counterparts–to ensure everything is on track. It’s also a nice little junket/vacation to get the Guv (a Democrat) out of town after his state essentially turned Republican underneath his feet in Tuesday’s election…
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Beaver County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Odebrecht | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell

MDN’s “Juvenile” Needling of Shell over Slow Cracker Pace
November 4, 2014November 4, 2014

An MDN reader wrote editor Jim Willis yesterday to take issue with our observation that “it’s about time” Shell did something to advance their ethane cracker project in Beaver County, PA (see Shell to Hold Info Session on Monaca Ethane Cracker Next Week). In a not-so-subtle way, the reader essentially told us to get our heads out of our…frac sand…and take note that Shell has been very active over the past year or so with advancing their project, contrary to our “juvenile” remarks suggesting otherwise. In particular, the old Horsehead Holding Corp. zinc smelter at the site was shut down this past May. The buildings were knocked down and are now almost completely removed from the site. Our not-so-subtle source also pointed us to Jeff Burd’s excellent blog site called Building Pittsburgh. Jeff refers to Shell and their cracker project as being like a duck…
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Beaver County | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell

Shell to Hold Info Session on Monaca Ethane Cracker Next Week
November 3, 2014November 3, 2014

All’s we can say is, It’s about time! Shell will hold a pair of public meetings next Thursday, Nov. 13, at the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center in Midland (Beaver County) PA to discuss their plans for an ethane cracker plant in Monaca with area residents. Yes, no doubt the crazies from outside of the area will show up to gripe and complain, as always happens. No big deal. As of next week it be exactly one year ago that Odebrecht announced their “world scale” ethane cracker for Parkersburg, WV (see WV Announces Brazilian Company to Build Ethane Cracker Complex). Seems to us that since that time all of the momentum to actually build a cracker plant has been with Odebrecht/WV and that Shell’s PA effort seems to have lost steam. Perhaps Shell is finally stepping up their game once again and getting serious about building a plant, originally announced all the way back in March 2012 (see Shell Announces Location of Ethane Cracker Plant)…
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Braskem | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Odebrecht | Processing Plants | Statewide WV | West Virginia | Wood County

Economist Briefs WVU-P on Odebrecht Ethane Cracker
October 20, 2014October 20, 2014

In February, the former director of West Virginia University’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research and professor emeritus at WVU, Tom Witt, released a study about the coming economic miracle that will be the Odebrecht ethane cracker plant in Parkersburg, WV (see Economist Releases Report on WV Cracker Plant’s Economic Impact). Witt’s previous employer, WVU, also hired him to brief them about this coming economic miracle. They specifically want to be sure their educational programs will help prepare the local workforce. Witt briefed the Parkersburg Board of Governors earlier this month. What did he tell them?…
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Allegheny County | Beaver County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Odebrecht | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia | Wood County

Odebrect Cracker Aims to Attract Chemical/Plastics Manufacturing
October 16, 2014October 16, 2014

David Peebles, Odebrecht’s vice president of business development and the guy working to make the $4 billion ethane cracker and petrochemical plant project in Parkersburg, WV a reality, gave some great insights into just how vast and complex a process building that plant is. Speaking yesterday at the Penn State Natural Gas Utilization Conference in Southpointe, PA, Peebles said…
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Braskem | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Odebrecht | Processing Plants | West Virginia | Wood County

Odebrecht WV Cracker Plant Decision “By End of 2015”
October 14, 2014October 14, 2014

An update on the progress being made by Odebrecht and their planned ethane cracker plant and petrochemical manufacturing facility planned for Parkersburg (Wood County), WV. At the recent Global Plastics Summit in Chicago, Braskem (sister company to Odebrecht) vice president of business development, Renato Monteiro, said a final decision on building the proposed cracker plant will be made “by the end of 2015.” Here’s a few other tidbits about the cracker plant that came from Monteiro at the conference, including when the first PE (polyethylene) might be manufactured at the plant…
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Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Odebrecht | Processing Plants

Odebrect Signs Deal for Polyethylene Tech for WV Cracker Plant
October 10, 2014October 10, 2014

Odebrecht continues to advance the ball toward building a world-class ethane cracker plant near Parkersburg, WV. MDN editor Jim Willis had the pleasure of meeting and talking with David Peebles, Odebrecht VP of business development and the guy working to make this project happen, at this year’s Shale Insight conference in Pittsburgh. Peebles said Odebrecht is still in the evaluation stage but that things are looking positive so far. Here’s another positive sign: INEOS Technologies, which licenses the technologies used in large petrochemical plants, announced they have just signed an agreement with Odebrect to provide polyethylene tech for the WV cracker plant…
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Ethane | Industrywide Issues

Demystifying Ethane + Let’s Go on a Trip to Saturn
October 3, 2014October 3, 2014

Say it ain’t so. Ethane can be found on Titan–one of Saturn’s moons?! Now how did those nasty, evil frackers already get their claws into Titan? Don’t the Titanians know that faffing about with ethane and methane and all of those “anes” will cause global warming?

We are, tongue-in-cheek, introducing a serious bit of information. In very basic terms ethane–an NGL coming from the ground along with methane–is “cracked” in huge petrochemical plants (“crackers”) to produce ethylene, which is converted into plastic like polyethylene. We’ve been writing a lot about the (now) three cracker plants in various stages of planning for the northeast that will use ethane from Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling (see Thailand & Japan Partner to Build 3rd Big Marcellus Ethane Cracker). We spotted what we consider a really good description of ethane and the cracking process that goes a little beyond the mere basics. We found it enlightening and thought you would too:
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Energy Services | Ethane | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | NGLs | NOVA Chemicals | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Canadian NOVA Chemicals to Ship Utica Ethane via UTOPIA
September 30, 2014September 30, 2014

In December, midstream company Kinder Morgan announced they would build a 210-mile, 10-inch natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline that will carry Utica ethane and propane from Harrison County, OH, to Riga, MI. From Riga, the NGLs will hitch a ride via the KM Cochin Pipeline east to Windsor, Ontario, Canada (see UTOPIA is Coming! The UTOPIA Pipeline, that is…). Earlier this month MDN told you that UTOPIA launched an open season to sign up customers for the pipeline (see UTOPIA Open Season Begins Today – OH to MI NGL Pipeline). Not surprisingly, Kinder has just announced that NOVA Chemicals, owner of the Corunna ethane cracker plant in Ontario, has signed up as one of Kinder’s main customers for UTOPIA. We did, however, notice a few interesting things about this latest announcement…
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Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Washington County

Thailand & Japan Partner to Build 3rd Big Marcellus Ethane Cracker
September 29, 2014September 29, 2014

Word has leaked out that Thailand’s largest chemical company–Bangkok-based PTT Global Chemical–and Japan’s fifth largest general trading company/conglomerates–Tokyo-based Marubeni Corp.–have formed an alliance and are actively looking to build an ethane cracker plant in the Marcellus/Utica region. The first such ethane cracker was announced by Shell in 2012, to be located in Beaver County, PA. The second was announced last year by Odebrecht, targeted to be built in Parkersburg, WV. We also recently told you about a “baby cracker”–a much smaller version of an ethane cracker coming to Monroe County, OH (see Ohio to Get “Baby” Ethane Cracker Originally Slated for WV). The PTT/Marubeni cracker will be the third big/major cracker plant for the northeast–with the caveat “if built” (which applies to all of these projects). The word on the street is that PTT/Marubeni have been looking for nearly a year…
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Allegheny County | Economic Impact | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | NGLs | Odebrecht | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | West Virginia | Wood County

A Present for Attendees of Shale Gas Insight – Peebles Column
September 24, 2014September 24, 2014

Just in time for the attendees of Shale Insight in Pittsburgh to read, a guest commentary was published in today’s edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by David Peebles, the man helping to build a $3 billion ethane cracker plant in Parkersburg, WV. David waxes eloquent on shale, ethane and energy security…
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Beaver County | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Regulation | Shell

Shell Files Permit to Build Barge Facility at Cracker Plant Site
September 8, 2014September 8, 2014

Something just coming to light now. In February of this year, Shell applied for a permit with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a barge facility on the Ohio River in Beaver County, PA at the site of Shell’s proposed ethane cracker. Is this yet another sign that Shell is finally getting serious about building the multi-billion dollar cracker plant in PA?…
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Energy Services | Ethane | Exporting | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Ohio | Pipelines

UTOPIA Open Season Begins Today – OH to MI NGL Pipeline
September 5, 2014September 5, 2014

Back in December MDN told you about Kinder Morgan’s new proposed new pipeline called the Utica To Ontario Pipeline Access, or UTOPIA (see UTOPIA is Coming! The UTOPIA Pipeline, that is…). The 240-mile natural gas liquids (NGL, specifically ethane and propane) pipeline will connect multiple fractionation facilities in Harrison County, OH, to Riga, MI. From Riga, the NGLs will hitch a ride via the KM Cochin Pipeline east to Windsor, Ontario, Canada where they will be delivered to NOVA Chemicals. The new $300 million, 10-inch pipeline from OH to MI is what is called UTOPIA. Yesterday KM announced a binding open season for UTOPIA…
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Appalachian Resins | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Monroe County | Ohio | Processing Plants

Ohio to Get “Baby” Ethane Cracker Originally Slated for WV
September 3, 2014September 3, 2014

In February 2013 MDN told you about plans from Appalachian Resins (AR) to build a polyethelene (PE) manufacturing plant complete with a baby ethane cracker (see “Small” Ethane Cracker Plant Coming to Wheeling, WV). The company, at that point, said they would begin construction somewhere south of the Wheeling, WV area by the end of 2013. That didn’t happen. Now we know why. Last week, AR’s CEO Jim Cutler announced he had signed a letter of intent with the Monroe County (OH) Port Authority to build the plant in Monroe County instead. The location for the plant moved just across the Ohio River, from the WV side to the OH side of the river. The cost to build the new facility is a cool $1 billion. No doubt both sides of the border will benefit, but this is definitely a loss for WV and a big gain for OH…
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