Ohio’s economic development arm has awarded its largest grant ever for site work for a massive, multibillion-dollar petrochemical plant being considered for eastern Ohio, Kallanish Energy reports.
The $30 million JobsOhio grant is another step taken to positively influence Thai chemical company PTT Global Chemical America and its South Korean partner, Daelim Industrial Co., to proceed with their ethane cracker project in Belmont County.
The company has committed $65 million to this phase of the project, according to JobsOhio, the Columbus Dispatch newspaper reported.
If the companies go forward, they would build one of the largest economic development projects in state history, one with thousands of construction jobs and probably several hundred permanent jobs once construction is completed.
“JobsOhio’s revitalization grant will support initial site-preparation work, which will begin later this month,” said Matt Englehart, JobsOhio spokesman. “While this is an important and positive step for the project, no final investment decision has been made. JobsOhio and our partners will continue closely collaborating with PTTGC America and Daelim as they work toward a final investment decision.”
The companies said in a statement, “There is not a timetable for that decision at this point. Obviously, both companies are extremely grateful to JobsOhio for its support,” the Dispatch reported
The plant would take ethane and break it down to produce ethylene, which is used in chemical manufacturing. The county is an attractive site because of its proximity to the plentiful natural gas of the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
The plant would be built on the site of FirstEnergy’s former R.E. Burger power plant, which closed in 2011. JobsOhio previously spent $14 million to help clean up the 168-acre site PTT bought in 2017.
PTT estimated in 2018 the project would cost $7.5 billion, even more than a similar plant now under construction 35 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, in Beaver County, Pennsylvania.
