Braskem drops plan for West Virginia cracker

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Plans for a Brazilian petrochemical company building an ethane cracker in northern West Virginia are dead, but state officials are still hoping another developer will build such a complex on the site, Kallanish Energy reports.

That news came out last week in a series of statements and news reports. Brazil’s Braskem is marketing the 380-acre site near Parkersburg, in Wood County.

State officials last week reported Braskem had dropped plans to build a $4 billion ethane cracker.

Not prepared to move forward

“It is my understanding that Braskem is not prepared to move forward on the cracker plant. They’re just not going to be able to do it,” said John Kelly, chairman of the West Virginia Legislature’s Joint Committee on Natural Gas Development.

Instead, Braskem is marketing the parcel, particularly to companies that might be interested in developing a cracker, state officials said.

Financial advisor hired

Braskem then issued a statement saying it had hired a financial advisor to “help evaluate strategic alternatives for the site.” Interested parties were directed to Kevin McGowan of McGowan Corporate Real Estate Advisors.

Braskem said it “will have no further comment at this time,” the Parkersburg News and Sentinel newspaper reported.

Reports since 2013

Reports of a possible ethane cracker in northern West Virginia have circulated since 2013. That when Braskem and its parent company, Odebrecht, first expressed interest in the project.

In 2015, Odebrecht got tied up in political scandals in Brazil and that cooled interest. It withdrew in 2016. Late that year, it looked that the project might have new life when Braskem said it intended to pursue the cracker.

A year ago, LyondellBassell Industries was rumored to be interested in buying out Braskem and that rekindled rumors. That interest ended last month, when LyondelBasell ended its pursuit of Braskem.

One cracker being built in Appalachia

One ethane cracker is under construction near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and another could be built in eastern Ohio. Royal Dutch Shell is building a $6 billion cracker at Monaca, Pa., in Beaver County on the Ohio River northwest of Pittsburgh.

The plant, expected to begin operations in the early 2020s, could produce up to 3.5 billion pounds of polyethylene per year. The complex will be producing small plastic pellets of polyethylene that will be shipped by truck and rail to plastic manufacturers.

Polyethylene is a key building block for numeroud plastics. The plant will need roughly 107,000 barrels of ethane-equivalent per day. The natural gas liquid will come from the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays in the Appalachian Basin.

Waiting on PTT

A final investment decision has not yet been made by PTT Global Chemical America for a proposed cracker at Shadyside, Ohio. PTT Global Chemical America is a subsidiary of PTT Global Chemical, Thailand’s largest integrated petrochemical company.

The plant, if built, annually would produce 1.5 million tons of ethylene and other materials from ethane produced from shale gas. The facility would use six ethane cracking furnaces and manufacture ethylene, high-quality polyethylene and linear low-density polyethylene.

Other ethane crackers in the U.S. are clustered on the Gulf Coast, mostly in Texas.

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