Joe Eddy, president and CEO of Eagle Manufacturing in Wellsburg, WV made a presentation to the Wellsburg City Council on Tuesday. During his presentation, he made a mysterious reference to news that an ethane cracker plant may “come to the region in the next six months” and then said he could not elaborate any further. This is a synopsis of what he said:
In a deeply divided electorate during a hotly-contested election year, is there anything Republicans and Democrats can agree on? Anything that both business and labor can both support? In Pennsylvania, it seems there is. And that issue is the Marcellus and Utica Shale.
Writing in today’s Harrisburg Patriot-News, a labor union leader praises PA Gov. Tom Corbett (a Republican) for his recent state budget and the tax breaks an incentives provided to ensure that Shell builds an ethane cracker plant in the state. Here’s what he says about bipartisan support for Gov. Corbett’s plan:
Read More “Labor Unions, Dems Praise PA Gov. Corbett for Cracker Plant”
At a ceremony yesterday in Marshall County, WV, Williams Partners announced they will spend an additional $1.34 billion between now and 2014 and add an additional 100 long-term jobs to expand processing capacity of a recently acquired natural gas liquids plant. Added with their previous investments, Williams will have spent $3.84 billion on infrastructure projects in the northern panhandle of West Virginia.
From yesterday’s announcement:
Read More “Williams to Invest Additional $1.34B, Create 100 Jobs in WV”
Last Wednesday night, a Shell general manager spoke to a gathering of people in Monaca, PA about Shell’s plans to build an ethane cracker plant in the community. As MDN has said numerous times, Shell’s deal to build a cracker plant in Monaca is a) not a sure thing, and b) will take years to complete when it does happen.
The Shell general manager, while reiterating those points, gave Monaca residents reason to be optimistic that the project will indeed happen in their community.
Read More “Shell Rep Tells Monaca Residents Cracker Plant Looking Good”
More jobs and more economic activity are on the way in eastern Ohio courtesy of Chesapeake Energy’s investments to build a new office complex near St. Clairsville (Belmont County) and their investment in a natural gas processing plant (Harrison/Columbiana counties). The new office complex is due to open in November while the processing plant is due to come online in 2013.
Read More “Chesapeake’s Construction Investment in Ohio Continues”
As MDN has previously cautioned, although the proposed ethane cracker plant Shell wants to build near Pittsburgh is looking good, it’s still not a foregone conclusion that Monaca, PA will be the location (see this MDN story). That message of caution was reaffirmed by Shell at an industry conference yesterday, as reported by the Youngstown Business Journal:
Read More “Shell Reaffirms PA Cracker Plant Still Planned, Not Certain”
Sunoco Logistics began an “open season” yesterday for their Mariner East pipeline project to deliver natural gas liquids—propane and ethane—from liquids-rich Marcellus Shale areas in western Pennsylvania to refineries and shipping terminals in southeastern Pennsylvania. An open season is the time when drillers can sign up and make long-term commitments to use the pipeline.
From the Sunoco press release:
Read More “Sunoco Logistics Open Season for Mariner East NGL Pipeline”
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett went to Monaca in Beaver County, PA yesterday to talk about a planned ethane cracker plant that Shell says it wants to build there. He was joined by a number of officials—bipartisan in makeup. Corbett’s message? “We’re not there yet.” He said that although a great deal has been done, more will need to be done before Shell pulls the trigger and builds the plant.
The press release from the governor’s office talking about his trip to Monaca:
Read More “PA Gov. Corbett Goes to Beaver County to Talk Cracker Plants”
Aither Chemicals remains committed to building an ethane cracker plant somewhere in the Marcellus/Utica Shale region, preferably in the Kanawha Valley region of West Virginia. An ethane cracker plant uses ethane (from wet gas) to “crack” it into other chemical compounds. Ethane is most commonly cracked to make ethylene, a raw material used in plastics.
Read More “Aither: 5 Compounds Customers Want from a Cracker Plant”
MarkWest has just signed a deal with XTO Energy (XTO is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Exxon Mobil) to extend MarkWest’s natural gas liquids (NGLs) gathering pipeline in Butler County, PA to XTO’s processing plant. Previously MarkWest announced plans to extend the same pipeline from its Houston, PA complex to the Bluestone complex in Butler County. With this announcement, MarkWest will further extend the pipeline from Bluestone to XTO’s plant.
This deal will grant MarkWest the right to fractionate and market NGLs from XTO. Adding this new pipeline to other recently announced pipelines by MarkWest, when everything is built and running, MarkWest will have 3 billion cubic feet of gas processing capacity and 270,000 barrels per day of fractionation capacity throughout the Marcellus and Utica Shale.
Read More “MarkWest Signs Deal with XTO to Process NGLs in PA”
West Virginia’s intrepid State Commerce Secretary, Keith Burdette, is once again talking up ethane cracker plants. He says there are now four possible companies interested in building crackers in West Virginia—and that does not include Shell (which announced they would build across the border in PA).
We know about two of the four: Aither Chemicals (see this MDN story), and Brazilian company Braskem (see this MDN story). But who are the other two?
Read More “4 Companies Consider WV for Ethane Cracker Plant”
The Marcus Hook Refinery in the Philadelphia, PA area was closed down in April. Owned by Sunoco, it is one of three refineries in the greater Philly area. A few weeks ago MDN told you about a study that Marcus Hook and Delaware County spent $100,000 on detailing potential uses and markets for the refinery (see this MDN story).
At the time, MDN asked the question if the Marcellus Shale would save the Marcus Hook refinery. Looks like it did. Yesterday, PA Gov. Tom Corbett’s office announced that some of the Marcus Hook Refinery assets have been purchased by Braskem America. Braskem will use it to manufacture polypropylene plastics. The press release says Braskem will secure feedstocks (raw materials) from “multiple sources,” without naming those sources. You can be sure natural gas liquids from the Marcellus and Utica Shale will be a big source—perhaps the main source—for the refinery.
Read More “Marcellus to the Rescue: Marcus Hook Refinery to Reopen”
Midstream giant Williams Partners continues an aggressive push into the Marcellus and Utica Shale and continues to cozy up with Caiman Energy as well. Yesterday Williams announced it will contribute $380 million toward a new $800 million joint venture with Caiman and several other partners to develop pipelines and processing facilities for natural gas, natural gas liquids and oil in the Utica Shale region of northeast Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania.
Earlier this year Williams spent $2.5 billion to purchase Caiman subsidiary Caiman Eastern Midstream, giving Williams a major midstream presence in the Marcellus/Utica region in northern West Virginia, southwestern Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio (see this MDN story). The recurring theme for Williams’ latest jv and acquisitions seems to be, “Get thee to the wet gas.”
Read More “Williams Does Second Midstream Deal with Caiman Energy”
NiSource Inc. announced today they are entering a joint venture with Hilcorp Energy and combining their Utica Shale acreage together with Hilcorp doing the drilling. They’re also establishing a midstream joint venture called Pennant Midstream to construct an initial 50 miles of wet gas gathering pipelines in northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania. And the new midstream company will build a natural gas processing complex in Ohio.
No word on exactly how much acreage the combined two have together in the Utica Shale, but the jv plus the new pipelines and processing plant is a major development for both eastern OH and western PA.
Read More “NiSource, Hilcorp Energy Joint Venture in Utica Shale”
Apparently the merger underway between Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco is going well enough, and the promise of Marcellus and Utica Shale big enough, that Sunoco has inked a deal with The Carlyle Group to form a joint venture to keep the Philadelphia refinery operating. The new joint venture will save 850 jobs at the plant. Wording in the extensive press release below indicates that shale—Marcellus, Utica and Bakken—will all play an important role for the refinery moving forward.
This is good news for the workers at the refinery, and good news for consumers who will continue to have access to low-cost oil, natural gas and other petrochemical products that will be produced by the refinery. Here’s the press release announcing the deal:
Read More “Sunoco & Carlyle Group Ink Joint Venture for Philly Refinery”
At 11:45 pm Saturday, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, for the second year in a row (and his second year in office), signed into law an on-time budget for the state—a budget that does not raise taxes. No small feat given the current sad state of the economy.
One of the biggest victories for Corbett in this year’s budget (supported by both Republicans and Democrats) was the passage of a tax credit for Shell and other companies who invest in an ethane cracker plant for the state:
Read More “PA Budget with Shell Cracker Plant Tax Credit Passes”