PETROCHEMICAL MARKETS
Shell moves closer to building US shale gas-fed complex / Land purchase in Pennsylvania but no final commitment / USD 4bn cracker would produce 1.5 m t/y
Shell Chemicals (London / UK; www.shellchemicals.com) has moved a step closer to building a new shale gas-fed cracker complex in Pennsylvania. After more than two years of deliberation, the US arm of the international oil and petrochemicals group has exercised its option to buy a former smelter complex owned by US zinc producer Horsehead (www.horsehead.net) near Monaca, Pennsylvania. The property adjoins the Marcellus gas fields, which would provide the feedstock – see Plasteurope.com of 23.03.2012. The group took an option on the property along the Ohio river in 2012 and renewed it three times while evaluating the site.
While quick to say that the purchase – announced by Horsehead – does not mean it has made a final decision to build, Shell’s US press team called the real estate deal a “necessary step to advance the permitting process.” Shell said a full project evaluation will be required before a decision is reached. As part of the process, preliminary site development work will be done when Horsehead completes demolition work at the site. The proposed ethane cracker would be the first of its kind in the US Northeast.
The Appalachian complex is expected to include a USD 4 bn ethane cracker with capacity to produce 1.5m t/y, along with 500,000 t/y of gas-phase high HDPE, 500,000 t/y of slurry HDPE and 500,000 t/y of LLDPE. Speaking for Shell’s firm intent to go ahead with the project, US reports said ethylene production technology was licensed from German engineering group Linde a year ago and a Linde partnership with US contractor Bechtel has been tapped to carry out the front-end engineering and design of the cracker. Ethane supply commitments meanwhile also have been nailed down.
Plans for two additional world-scale crackers in the US Northeast, including units proposed by Brazil’s Odebrecht – parent of Braskem – and Thailand’s PTTGC Global, are still up in the air. With so many new cracker and associated plastics production lines scheduled to start up in 2017-2020, global surpluses are expected to peak at more than 5m in 2018, according to the petrochemicals information service Platts. By 2022, global PE supply should be short, necessitating an additional 4.5 m t/y of capacity Platts said, noting that project delays could then prove beneficial.
While quick to say that the purchase – announced by Horsehead – does not mean it has made a final decision to build, Shell’s US press team called the real estate deal a “necessary step to advance the permitting process.” Shell said a full project evaluation will be required before a decision is reached. As part of the process, preliminary site development work will be done when Horsehead completes demolition work at the site. The proposed ethane cracker would be the first of its kind in the US Northeast.
The Appalachian complex is expected to include a USD 4 bn ethane cracker with capacity to produce 1.5m t/y, along with 500,000 t/y of gas-phase high HDPE, 500,000 t/y of slurry HDPE and 500,000 t/y of LLDPE. Speaking for Shell’s firm intent to go ahead with the project, US reports said ethylene production technology was licensed from German engineering group Linde a year ago and a Linde partnership with US contractor Bechtel has been tapped to carry out the front-end engineering and design of the cracker. Ethane supply commitments meanwhile also have been nailed down.
Plans for two additional world-scale crackers in the US Northeast, including units proposed by Brazil’s Odebrecht – parent of Braskem – and Thailand’s PTTGC Global, are still up in the air. With so many new cracker and associated plastics production lines scheduled to start up in 2017-2020, global surpluses are expected to peak at more than 5m in 2018, according to the petrochemicals information service Platts. By 2022, global PE supply should be short, necessitating an additional 4.5 m t/y of capacity Platts said, noting that project delays could then prove beneficial.
13.11.2014 Plasteurope.com [229742-0]
Published on 13.11.2014