MORGANTOWN — Plastics are the future of the shale gas boom and politics is an obstacle to getting there. Plastics and politics occupied the attention of natural gas industry members during Tuesday’s opening sessions of the 10th annual and first all-virtual Shale Insight conference.
The annual conference is put on by the Marcellus Shale Coalition, the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association and the Ohio Oil and Gas Association. In recent years it’s been held in Pittsburgh and this year was set for Erie, Pa., until COVID-19 led it to go all virtual.
Plastics
Keeping natural gas here in the tri-state region to feed an expanded petrochemical industry is the constant theme of natural gas discussions. The first step in that hoped-for economic boom is the Shell Polymers’ Northeastern polyethylene plant in Monaca, Pa., northwest of Pittsburgh.
Hilary Mercer, vice president of Pennsylvania Chemicals Shell Polymer, provided an update on cracker plant progress. Construction — disrupted by COVID — is about 70% complete; the 98-mile Falcon pipeline that will feed it is all underground and 95% of the way toward completion.
The location is ideal, she said, because 70% of all converters of polyethylene sit within 700 miles of the plant. So there’s available ethane feed stock from the region’s shale gas and a ready supply of customers. The polyethylene pellets can then be shipped by rail or truck.
“What an amazing year we’ve had,” she said. About 8,000 people were working on site when COVID hit; they shut down the site in late March for the sake of the workforce and the local population. After three weeks of deep cleaning and site preparation they slowly rebooted and now have about 6,000 back to work.
Sustainability is a central theme of their work, she said. “Plastic waste is the problem.” That means improving recycling, but mechanical recycling has limits. So they’re pursuing chemical recyling in a process called pyrolysis, where they turn the waste into liquid fuel to feed their Gulf Coast crackers. One Shell Lousiana plant is already doing it.
Shell is also a founding member of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, she said, pursuing worldwide efforts to improve waste collection and clean up rivers worldwide, especially in third-world countries.
Mercer said Shell doesn’t know when the plant will come online commercially. Returning the workforce to the site was a priorty and now they’re re-examining the schedule. They’ve started started commissioning utility systems– water first – and are looking at early next year to fire the gas turbines.
Politics
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., talked about how the 2020 elections will affect the natural gas industry. Regarding one side, he said, “Their hostility toward energy, including natural gas, is legendary.”
He named candidates calling for fracking bans and noted that 13% of natural gas and 24% of oil comes from public lands. Fracking bans would cripple Pennsylvania and neighboring states, he said. That would lead to job losses and open domestic markets to unfriendly suppliers such as Russia.
“We support this industry, we support its workers and we support the safe expansion of natural gas,” he said.
And while some contend the gas industry worsens global warming, he said, “Natural gas is the reason we have seen a significant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions,” down 40% since 2007.
Politics and plastics
A panel of three petrochemical industry experts talked about turning energy into life-sustaining products.
Antonis Papadourakis, president and CEO of LANXESS, a global chemical firm, warned fthe consequences of a fracking ban. “It would be the exact wrong thing to do at the exact wrong time,” to cut off an essential energy supply and engine of economic growth in the midst of a pandemic.
Chris Jahn, president and CEO of he American Chemistry Council, said the petrochemical industry “is literally saving lives” making PPE, sanitizer, masks, gloves, gowns and more.
And petrochemicals are at the core of any kind of green transition. They’re needed for electric car bodies, batteries, windmills and more.
“You cant’ have those alternative forms of industries without the chemical industry,” he said. “If we just keep it in the ground and we don’t allow the products to be made you can’t address the issue.”
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