Experts Say: If You Build One NE Cracker, More Will Come
Elected officials, business leaders, labor union reps and people from several colleges gathered last week in Wheeling, WV to discuss the profound impact even one ethane cracker plant will have in the region. According to several who spoke, if the region lands even one cracker plant, it will have the effect of attracting others. There has been talk of four potential cracker plants in the Marcellus/Utica–three “world class scale” crackers and one smaller one. One expert speaking said he believes the region can comfortably handle up to six! Here was the excited cracker chatter from last week’s meeting…
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MDN received an exclusive tip from a trusted source (who is also an MDN subscriber) yesterday about the Shell ethane cracker plant in Monaca (Beaver County), PA. Our source, who lives in Beaver County, told us he was approached by a Shell landman about signing a pipeline right-of-way through his property to build a pipeline to the plant. We have an account of our source’s conversation with the landman, and some key information the landman let slip about Shell’s plans for two such pipelines…
Westlake Chemical Partners has just announced it will expand ethylene capacity at its Calvert City, Kentucky facility. The expansion will add 70 million pounds of annual ethylene capacity to the Calvert City facility during the first half of 2017. OK, what does this have to do with the Marcellus/Utica? As it turns out, a lot. The Westlake Calvert City petrochemical plant is an ethane cracker plant by a different name. Cracking ethane into ethylene is not the only thing that happens at the facility, but it’s one of the main things that happens there. And the ethane that feeds the cracker at the Calvert City facility comes, in part, from the Marcellus/Utica…