Odds of Shell PA Cracker Plant Increase (Charleston, Huntington: 2013, utilities)

[CTMountaineer]

In what would be hailed as good news for the Northern Panhandle, Shell's decision to scrap plans for another Gulf Coast gas to liquids facility appear to increase chances for a new cracker west of Pittsburgh. By bracketing the Upper Ohio Valley between two crackers (one in Parkersburg and one in Beaver County), industrial development potential for The Panhandle would be terrific.

Shell announcement increases Pa.'s chance at cracker * - Business - Charleston Daily Mail - West Virginia News and Sports -

[Silkdashocker]

That's an interesting development, considering just a couple of months ago it appeared the PA cracker could be in jeopardy. It sounds like good news.

[elewis7]

Good news all around. The only concern would be if there wasn't enough gas for both crackers. The extracted volumes are far beyond the needed amounts, but there will be issues with companies already contracted to export their gas for utilities or to fractioners/crackers in the Gulf Coast or Canada. With the increased drilling activity and expansion into the Utica play, I don't see this hindering things, though I'm an optimist.

Imagine an industrial revolution for the Upper Ohio Valley! Heck, if two crackers are successful, that just means more downstream development which bodes well for currently underdeveloped industrial areas. There's only so much flat land around the proposed cracker sites, so we may start to see places like Ravenswood actually boom again.

[CTMountaineer]

My belief is that everything from Pittsburgh to Point Pleasant will be heavily industrialized, and that Huntington will once again be a transportation powerhouse.