A Different Kind of Lobbyist

My network is your opportunity

  • Home
  • Network
  • Services
    • Petrochemical Industry
    • Western PA Petrochemical Industry
  • Blog
  • About ADKL
    • Bio
  • Contact
  • Covid-19
    • COVID 19 Press Release
    • NEW PAYCHECKS PROTECTION PROGRAM
    • SBA Corona Virus Loan Terms and Rates
    • BUSINESS TAX RELIEF
    • SBA EXPRESS BRIDGE LOAN PROGRAM
    • Surviving Corona Virus Resources
    • SBA
    • COVID-19 Small Business Guide
    • Tax Foundation CARES Analysis
    • CARES ACT INTERVIEW

Could the new cracker plant in Beaver County spur a new era for Manufacturing

March 18, 2020 By rjohnson

Manufacturing and the Cracker Plant

Mar 18, 2020, 8:23am EDT

Ethylene Town? It’s not quite as catchy as Steel City and, even though metal manufacturing has gone down steadily over the past several decades, there’s little chance that Pittsburgh will change its iconic nickname.

Regardless, as the region prepares for the opening of Royal Dutch Shell’s Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex in Beaver County sometime in the next few years, could plastics manufacturing help fill the void left by the collapse of the steel industry?

David Taylor, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association, a nonprofit group based in Harrisburg, thinks it’s possible.

“The advent of the Shell facility is tremendously exciting,” Taylor said. “We’re seeing the huge surge in construction activity and all of the economic vitality that’s resulting from that.”

According to estimates from Shell, once operational, the ethane cracker facility, locally known as simply, “the cracker plant,” will provide about 600 permanent jobs.

Shell did not respond with a comment for this story.

According to Taylor, though, those jobs are just the start.

“The most exciting part is the work that will become possible because that facility is running,” Taylor said.

To understand the kind of businesses that could potentially pop up around an ethane cracker plant, it’s important to understand what it does.

Essentially, the plant will take natural gas harvested from the Marcellus Shale, separate the ethane, and “crack” a hydrogen molecule off of it to make ethylene, a main component of plastic.

“Ethylene is at the top of a value chain that, depending on how you process it, can yield an entire spectrum of different products,” Taylor said.

Shell estimates its facility will have the capability of producing 1.6 million tonnes of ethylene pellets per year.

“You have to remember, for the manufacturers that use that ethylene as an input, you’re paying not just for the molecules. you’re also paying for the cost of transporting them,” Taylor said. For this reason, Taylor says it makes financial sense for manufacturers to set up shop in the region.

And what kind of manufacturers could move to southwestern Pennsylvania?

“This is what’s exciting,” he said. “Depending on how you process it, the ethylene can yield every kind of paint, glaze, solvent, coating and adhesive, as well as every kind of plastic and rubber and Styrofoam. These are inputs that go into every single consumer good that you and I purchase and handle and use every day.”

Not everyone is as excited about the prospect of the petrochemical industry expanding its imprint in southwestern Pennsylvania.

While sources indicate that ExxonMobil Corp. has been scouting the area to put its own cracker facility in the region, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto has publicly expressed his displeasure with the industry.

“I oppose any additional petrochemical companies coming to western Pennsylvania,” he said at the Climate Action Summit held last October.

Peduto warned of the environmental impact of the industry, saying that businesses thinking of moving into the region are concerned about environmental quality.

“What they say is clean your air, clean your water,” Peduto said at the conference. “They’re not asking for free parking or tax breaks. They’re asking for the basics.”

But Taylor thinks the petrochemical industry could be a new dawn for the Pittsburgh area.

“We have a chance to resurrect Pittsburgh’s heritage of manufacturing,” Taylor said. “This is about bringing to life a whole new petrochemical manufacturing sector.”

While most of the new businesses Taylor expects to come to the region would be working with plastic, a possible boom in any sector of manufacturing would be welcome.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, manufacturing jobs in the area have been on a steady downward slide. In the beginning of 2001, there were 128,000 manufacturing jobs, while at the end of 2019, there were only about 85,000 jobs in the Pittsburgh area.

Beaver County Commissioner Jack Manning is skeptical.

“A lot of people believe the end users are going to start moving to the area,” Manning said. “And I think that’s going to be very slow to materialize, quite frankly. If you’re on the West Coast, or in Illinois or you’re in Indiana, and you’re making product, there’s not much incentive to get that much closer to the supply. So, on the manufacturing side, I think that’s going to be slow to develop.”

Manning, however, is optimistic about the facility’s potential to have a positive impact on the region, both in terms of jobs and prosperity.

“I don’t see a lot of PPGs or folks that are making detergent jugs for Procter & Gamble, those kinds of things, coming into the area all that much,” he said. “But I can see compounders, trucking businesses boosting the business, all the maintenance and all that kind of stuff. And other businesses are more connected into the raw materials supply and the production, versus the end use.”

Manning said that the construction of the facility, along with the potential of the petrochemical industry in the region, has put Beaver County on the map.

“(Shell) is going to continue to pour an awful lot of resources into the local area,” Manning said. “They are bringing in a whole lot of permanent jobs, and there will probably be a 2-to-1 ratio of fairly permanent contact jobs to support that plant. I get a little upset when people say, ‘it’s only going to be 600 jobs;’ it’s going to be a lot more than that.”

Manning said the new jobs created will boost an area that’s seen a lot of economic depression.

“Those wages are second to none in this area when you talk about what that industry pays.”

The commissioner said the high wage jobs will impact the community as people spend more money in the area by going to restaurants and patronizing local stores.

“There’s a multiplying effect,” he said.

Abby Foster, president of the Pennsylvania Chemical Industry Council, said that whether it’s manufacturing or logistics, the cracker plant will be an economic booster.

“You need logistics and support,” she said. “You need warehousing, trucking companies and everything that goes along with it. That’s accountants, the labor needed for everything.

“It’s almost a multi-phased manufacturing opportunity so it’s not just the cracker. It’s all these other manufacturers that come with it. So that’s really why everyone keeps talking about this as a manufacturing renaissance because it will create so many layers of manufacturing. It has the potential to do that.”

Mike LarsonManaging EditorPittsburgh Business Times

Filed Under: Manufacturing, Oil & Gas

Energize PA Press Conference Harrisburg September 18, 2019

September 21, 2019 By rjohnson

Pa. GOP members begin moving priority, pro-natural gas package

Filed Under: Oil & Gas, Workforce Tagged With: petrochemical industry

Energy Secretary promotes Petrochemical Industry

August 15, 2019 By rjohnson

Energy Secretary Rick Perry backs building petrochemical hub in Appalachia

Aug 13, 2019, 6:19pm EDT

IMG 0886

NATE DOUGHTY

Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, left, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler speak Tuesday afternoon at the Shell Chemical plastics manufacturing plant under construction in Potter Township.

Secretary of Energy Rick Perry praised efforts to build a more robust petrochemical industry in the Pittsburgh region and the rest of Appalachia, saying a more robust “all of the above” energy strategy provided a big boost to the economy and national security.

Perry traveled to Potter Township with President Trump to visit Shell’s Pennsylvania Chemicals project, which is well under way in Beaver County and is employing more than 5,000 construction workers.

“I’m a big fan of the concept of developing an all-of-the-above energy strategy in the Appalachian region,” Perry said Tuesday afternoon.

He said that as governor of Texas and now in his new role, he’s worried about the impact of a large hurricane moving up the Houston ship channel where the petrochemical industry has been based since the end of World War II.

“This could have a devastating effect on the petrochemical industry in this nation, because so much of it is based in that region,” Perry said. “If we were to duplicate that here, not only is the economic impact stunning, the jobs that get created, but also this country would have a protection against a major natural disaster.”

Perry added: “Best as I can tell, you don’t have any hurricanes in the Appalachian valley.”

As energy secretary, Perry has a big influence in the types of projects that are built. One big-ticket item that is being contemplated in the tri-state region is the Appalachian Ethane Storage Hub, which would be a mass complex or a series of centers where natural gas liquids like ethane and propane would be deposited for later use. There’s been a move to build such a complex and a proposal for funding — the project would cost around $10 billion, in some estimates — is before the Energy Department.

Petrochemical plants, also known as crackers, similar to the one being built by Shell are being pursued throughout the Appalachian region. A second ethane cracker, this one built along the banks of the Ohio River in Belmont County, Ohio, is being considered by PTT Global Chemicals and Daelim. A third project, in West Virginia, recently lost its corporate backer.

The focus on Tuesday’s visit to Beaver County was entirely on the Shell plant, while up the road about five miles, two energy-related employers facing closure: The Bruce Mansfield coal-fired power plant that will close in about eight months, and the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station, which is threatened with closure by the same owners, FirstEnergy Solutions.

Perry said he was concerned about the fate of coal and nuclear power plants that are to be closed prematurely.

“Every other source of energy is interruptible, but not nuclear, not coal,” Perry said. “We need to have a good conversation in this country about coal.”

He didn’t address specific efforts to save Bruce Mansfield or Beaver Valley.

Perry praised the work of the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in South Park, where he had visited earlier in the day. He said NETL was working on many innovative projects, including small coal plants that have low to no emissions.

Perry and EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler pushed back against claims that the Trump administration is rolling back clean-air and clean-energy regulations. Wheeler said that the new Affordable Clean Energy rule will reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the power plant sector by about 33 percent and that methane emissions have been cut by 15 percent since 2000 at the same time that natural gas and liquified natural gas production has doubled.

The difference, Wheeler said, was that the environmental reductions have been met at the same time the Trump administration has been focusing on jobs.

“We’ve grown our economy at the same time,” Wheeler said.

Paul J. Gough Reporter Pittsburgh Business Times

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Appalachian Storage hub Conference, natural gas downstream development, petrochemical industry

Ruling on Wells helps Boost 2018 Impact Fee Collection

January 29, 2019 By rjohnson

Ruling on wells helps boost 2018 impact fee collection

Jan 28, 2019, 1:37pm EST

This article reposted from the Pittsburgh Business Times

Marcellus Shale Gas Drilling Tower

The natural gas drilling impact fee is set to reach a record for 2018.

The Public Utility Commission’s pending collection of impact fees will be boosted this year by about $22.3 million by a state Supreme Court ruling over the status of a certain type of well that had been disputed by some natural gas drillers.

The recent ruling in the Snyder Bros. vs. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission ruling adds so-called stripper wells to impact-fee collections. Stripper wells are oil and natural gas wells that are nearing the end of their operating life, and some drillers said they shouldn’t be counted for impact fees. That was settled earlier this month.

This contributed to what the Independent Fiscal Office estimates will be a new record for annual collections of $246.9 million for 2018 natural gas activity, up $37.4 million from 2017. Counties, municipalities and a housing fund will receive the most with $137.2 million, followed by $91.5 million for the Marcellus Legacy Fund, $10.5 million to state agencies and $7.7 million for conservation districts.

Beyond the contribution from delayed well payments, another $15.1 million was tied by the IFO from the 779 new wells spud in 2018.

“Pennsylvania’s tax on natural gas, the impact fee, is working as designed and an important revenue source for statewide environmental and conservation programs, as well as communities in all 67 counties,” said David Spigelmyer, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition.

Revenues for the past five years from the impact fee:

2014: $223.5 million
2015: $187.7 million
2016: $173.2 million
2017: $209.5 million
2018: $246.97 million
Here’s the list of estimated payments by driller, according to the PUC earlier this month.

Paul J. Gough
Reporter
Pittsburgh Business Times

Filed Under: Oil & Gas Tagged With: impact fee revenue in Pennsylvania, oil and gas development benefits, PA Oil and gas revenue

DOE Study: Ethane Storage Hub Report November 2018

December 9, 2018 By rjohnson

http://marcelluscoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Nov-2018-DOE-Ethane-Hub-Report.pdf

This is a substantial report on the future of the Petrochemical Industry in the Tri-State area of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.  This industry provides fantastic opportunities for economic growth in these three states.  We must identify funding to make this happen.

Filed Under: Manufacturing, Oil & Gas, Workforce Tagged With: Energy growth in the Tri-State region, ethane storage hub, Natural gas economic benefits, petrochemical industry

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 40
  • Go to Next Page »

Signup for our Newsletter

Categories

  • Manufacturing
  • Motorsports
  • Oil & Gas
  • Recruitment
  • Training
  • Transportation
  • Uncategorized
  • Workforce

Recent Posts

  • Could the new cracker plant in Beaver County spur a new era for Manufacturing
  • Energize PA Press Conference Harrisburg September 18, 2019
  • Energy Secretary promotes Petrochemical Industry
  • Ruling on Wells helps Boost 2018 Impact Fee Collection
  • DOE Study: Ethane Storage Hub Report November 2018

Tags

Appalachian Storage hub Conference DEP approves natural gas power plant DEP Chapter 78 regulations energy fracking fracking uses less water than other energy gas Gas pipeline development for Philadelphia gas producers support new water lines jobs less water used in fracking than other industriesu location of gas wells manufacturing marcellus Marcellus Pipeline development marcellus utica West Virginia pipeline Mayor Peduto starts Veterans career program natural gas natural gas development Natural gas economic benefits natural gas producers build infrastructure new pipeline in West Virginia new veterans career program in Pittsburgh oppose severance tax in PA PA severance tax Peduto veterans jobs program petrochemical industry Pipeline construction in Marcellus Pipeline development necessary for economic development pipelines Pittsburgh looking at transportation improvements proposed pipeline for West Virginia recruitment renewable energy severance tax Severance tax and Governor Wolf Shell cracker facility Shell Cracker plant shortage of skilled energy workers state authority over gas wells State keeps control over gas wells transportation group lokking at improvements Utica workforce training zoning

Contact Me

A Different Kind of Lobbyist

adkl-gray

Recent Posts

  • Could the new cracker plant in Beaver County spur a new era for Manufacturing
  • Energize PA Press Conference Harrisburg September 18, 2019
  • Energy Secretary promotes Petrochemical Industry
  • Ruling on Wells helps Boost 2018 Impact Fee Collection
  • DOE Study: Ethane Storage Hub Report November 2018

Contact Me


Robert Johnson
(412) 848-5900
5337 Brightwood Rd.
Bethel Park, PA 15102

Copyright © 2023 · Web Design by Sean Johnson Consultants, LLC.