Shell Picks Beaver Co. PA for Cracker Facility (Charleston, Wheeling: transporting, lease)

[snorpus]

Shell Oil Co. announced it will build a massive petrochemical "cracker" plant in Potter, Beaver County, making Pennsylvania the winner in a tri-state competition for the billion-dollar industrial operation.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

One of the other sites under consideration was near the PPG/Bayer complex, north of New Martinsville.

[tbailey1138]

So the tradition of taking our resources and transporting the benefit somewhere else continues. This makes me wonder even more if long term, is natural gas good for WV? Landing this plant would have been nice.

[tbailey1138]

Just saw this:

AP Sources: WVa cracker site encroached on casino - The Herald Dispatch

[cry_havoc]

Part of this was probably due to WV's unfriendly business atmosphere, but I imagine in the end it comes down to who gave them the best benefits.

The state government should work to make sure some of the wealth that is being extracted from WV stays within in WV, but we all know they are NOT going to do this.

[mattec]

Originally Posted by tbailey1138

So the tradition of taking our resources and transporting the benefit somewhere else continues.

Considering that PA is producing just as much gas.... its a wash

[Chriscross309]

We are probably still going to get a Cracker here in Kanawha County, locally owned and operated too, anyways so we still have something to look forward to.

Surprise Announcement of Ethane Cracker Plant in WV | Marcellus Drilling News

Engineers hired to develop Kanawha cracker plant* - News - The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports -

Investors lease land for cracking plant* - News - The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports -

//www.city-data.com/forum/charl...plant-new.html

[CTMountaineer]

20% of West Virginia workers are represented by a union, yet because of their organization their political clout is far in excess of their numbers. The state is one of the few holdouts against right to work status, and as a result we are deemed to have a poor investment climate here. The other 80% and everyone else suffers, but it is not likely to change.

It was always a foregone conclusion that they would locate in the wet gas area. It would be far too costly to build pipelines to Kanawha for such processing when they could just as easily do it where the stuff comes out of the ground. If a second major cracker is built, I would expect it to be build near Wheeling on the Ohio side of the river. Northern Panhandle folks would be working there, but the State of Ohio would get the tax revenue because of their much better perceived business climate.

That does not mean that Chris is wrong. Some local Kanawha investors might well pony up cash to build a small cracker there, but they would be under competitive pressure from the start because the majority of the raw materials would have to be transported to that location in one way or another.

[elewis7]

Chris, I am praying Kanawha County, or anywhere else in WV for that matter, gets a cracker. But good luck and godspeed to Neely in trying to fund the enterprise. We are all too familiar with the way projects die in this state, and with the market still recovering, it will be a challenge - to say the least - to get the funding. There's always hope, and an ethane cracker is just about the smartest investment one could make industrially in this state, but I've learned to not get my hopes up too high.

[CTMountaineer]

Originally Posted by elewis7

Chris, I am praying Kanawha County, or anywhere else in WV for that matter, gets a cracker. But good luck and godspeed to Neely in trying to fund the enterprise. We are all too familiar with the way projects die in this state, and with the market still recovering, it will be a challenge - to say the least - to get the funding. There's always hope, and an ethane cracker is just about the smartest investment one could make industrially in this state, but I've learned to not get my hopes up too high.

Bingo.

[Chriscross309]

Maybe we could start some kind of City-data craker fund, that we could donate to the cause

If he could get Chevron or somebody like that on board, then that would help big time. But you all are 100% right, that is alot of money and the economy isn't exactly healthy.