Westlake Chemical Buys Axiall, Enters NE Cracker Market
In December MDN told you that Axiall Corporation, a large petrochemical manufacturer, had made a final investment decision to move ahead and build a $3 billion ethane cracker/petrochemical facility in Louisiana (see Final Decision: Axiall Building Ethane Cracker in LA…NE Ethane?). Based on comments and various news accounts, we shared with you the opinion that its almost certain the plant will be supplied by shale gas from the Marcellus/Utica region (see Axiall Announces New Cracker Plant for LA, Fed by NE Ethane). Axiall owns, among other things, a large petchem plant in Marshall County, WV, the former PPG chemical plant along W.Va. 2 which Axiall bought just three years ago. Last Friday Westlake Chemical, another large petchem manufacturer, announced they are buying Axiall lock, stock and barrel–for $3.8 billion. Among the comments Westlake made is that it “looks forward” to working on the ethane cracker plant in Louisiana. Welcome to the Marcellus, Westlake!…
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Listen up Pennsylvania communities with shale drilling: The PA Housing Finance Agency (PHFA) wants to hear from you with proposals for improving the “availability and affordability of housing in the Marcellus Shale region of the state.” The PHFA is back for a second year in a row with $5 million from impact fee revenue to spread around in communities affected by shale drilling (see last year’s story: 
The Shell ethane cracker plant “yes” announcement is still, a week later, reverberating across the northeast (see 
Last week BP released its annual Statistical Review of World Energy–the 65th edition! (We have a full copy embedded below.) A number of big energy companies, like Exxon Mobil, as well as government agencies, publish similar reports that characterize current and future world energy trends. However, one analyst we read says BP’s report is the best: “I have relied upon the BP World Energy report for years. It is not a report to be viewed with a partisan eye, but as merely one of the best, if not the best, energy trend device available anywhere. In comparison to government agencies like the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) the global International Energy Association (IEA) or OPEC’s own World Oil Outlook, the BP report has proven itself to be far more valuable in finding investable trends. I would never recommend any oil sector without having the statistical evidence of the BP World Energy Report behind me.” In scanning a summary of this year’s report, one statistic stands out for us. Environmental radicals constantly prattle on that renewable energy sources could replace fossil fuels, if we only had the will to change. What utter rubbish, as proven by this stat: In 2015 renewable energy, mostly used to generate power, reached 2.8% of global energy consumption, up 2% in the last ten years. Did you get that? Only 2.8% of the energy used in the world is generated by wind, solar, etc. Fossil fuels are here to stay through not only our own lifetimes, but the lifetimes of our children and grandchildren. Someday maybe we’ll be famous for having been prescient in penning these words (we’ll be long dead and gone)–but mark our words, fossil fuels are not going away any time soon…
We’re keeping a close eye on Siluria Technologies. In May we told you the company has pioneered a way to convert methane (i.e. natural gas) directly into ethylene, the raw material used to make plastics (see 
The odious and misnamed Food & Water Watch, a virulent anti-drilling organization, along with several other Big Groups, has just delivered a petition with the signatures of 90,000 wacko radicals to the Democrat National Committee to demand that the DNC add a fracking ban plank to the Party’s platform. Outlandish? Would never happen? Hey, radicals in Pennsylvania got the Dems there to adopt such a plank before the last gubernatorial election (see 
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Manufacturing resurgence, thx to Marcellus/Utica; how will my pipeline easement be taxed; do I need insurance to protect my o&g interests; Penguins are the energy story of the year; PA rig count falls for second week; $50/barrel is the new $100/barrel; natgas price heading higher; natgas glut through end of decade; and more!
In January, three liberal Democrat county commissioners from Fayette County, WV, with the backing and help of the radical WV Mountain Party, voted to ban injection wells in the county (see 
As MDN told you in May, Halcon Resources, a Utica Shale driller that “guessed wrong” by leasing 140,000 Utica Shale acres in the northern part of the play (in Ohio) and currently doesn’t drill on any of that acreage, is preparing to file for bankruptcy (see 
On Friday MDN reported that Antero Resources has just cut a deal with Southwestern Energy to purchase 55,000 net acres located in Wetzel, Tyler and Doddridge Counties in West Virginia for $450 million (see 
The euphoria over Shell’s announcement last week committing to building a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant in Monaca (Beaver County), PA still hasn’t subsided (see 
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) works exclusively for the United States Congress, providing policy and legal analysis to committees and Members of both the House and Senate, regardless of party affiliation. As a legislative branch agency within the Library of Congress, CRS has been a valued and respected resource on Capitol Hill for more than a century. Recently CRS wrote and published a report titled “An Overview of Air Quality Issues in Natural Gas Systems” (full copy below). The report looks at federal, state and local activities to help control air pollution from oil and gas–both drilling and pipelines. Without taking sides, this report provides information on the natural gas industry and the types and sources of air pollutants caused by the industry. The report examines the role of the federal government in regulating these emissions, including provisions in the Clean Air Act and EPA’s onerous regulatory activities. The report concludes with a brief discussion of the issues. Worth a read…