Shell Chem­i­cal LP (Shell) has signed a land option agree­ment with Horse­head Cor­po­ra­tion to eval­u­ate a site in Potter and Center Townships for a poten­tial petro­chem­i­cal complex.

The com­plex, which would be located in Beaver County near Monaca, Pennsylvania, includes an ethane cracker that would upgrade locally pro­duced ethane from Mar­cel­lus Shale gas pro­duc­tion.

The devel­op­ment marks another phase as Shell con­tin­ues to assess the com­mer­cial fea­si­bil­ity of a petro­chem­i­cal com­plex in the Appalachian region. Next steps include addi­tional envi­ron­men­tal analy­sis, fur­ther engi­neer­ing design stud­ies, assess­ment of the local ethane sup­ply, and con­tin­ued eval­u­a­tion of the eco­nomic via­bil­ity of the project.

“We are very pleased to have signed this site option agree­ment,” said Dan Carl­son, gen­eral man­ager, New Busi­ness Devel­op­ment, Shell Chem­i­cals. “This is an impor­tant step for the project, and we look for­ward to work­ing with the com­mu­ni­ties in Penn­syl­va­nia, and gas pro­duc­ers across Appalachia, as we con­tinue our efforts to develop a petro­chem­i­cal complex.”

In selecting the proposed site, Shell looked at var­i­ous fac­tors, includ­ing good access to liq­uids rich nat­ural gas resources, water, road and rail trans­porta­tion infra­struc­ture, power grids, eco­nom­ics, and suf­fi­cient acreage to accom­mo­date facil­i­ties for a world scale petro­chem­i­cal com­plex and poten­tial future expansions.

In addi­tion to an ethane cracker, Shell is also con­sid­er­ing poly­eth­yl­ene (PE) and mono-ethylene gly­col (MEG) units to help meet increas­ing demands in the North Amer­i­can mar­ket. Much of the PE and MEG pro­duc­tion would be used by indus­tries in the northeast.

For more information, visit www.shell.com.

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