After a multi-year review, Shell Chemical Appalachia LLC recently announced that it has taken the final investment decision to build an ethylene cracker and polyethylene (PE) derivatives unit along the Ohio River approximately 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The much-anticipated project is expected to create up to 6,000 construction jobs and 600 permanent positions.
The complex will use low-cost ethane from the Marcellus and Utica basin shale gas producers to manufacture 1.6 million tonnes of PE per year, used in food packaging, automotive components and numerous other products.
Shell expects major construction to start in approximately 18 months, with commercial production anticipated early in the next decade. The Pennsylvania facility will be Shell’s fourth major petrochemical complex in the US.