West Virginia Executive Spring/Summer 2020 | Page 36

Appalachia while also providing energy security and diversity
and reliability to the U.S. petrochemical manufacturing base.
One such investment is the $6 billion ethane cracker being
constructed in Potter Township, PA, which is part of Shell’s
Pennsylvania Petrochemical Complex—the first U.S. petrochemical
project to be built outside of the Gulf Coast region
in decades.
“Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 7,000 union
construction jobs at that facility,” says Winberg. “While construction
was temporarily halted, it is resuming, and when they
get it built, there will be 500 full-time jobs at that one cracker.
It is looking promising that PTT is going to build a $10 billion
cracker right across the river from Moundsville, WV, in Ohio.
With the phenomenal growth in natural gas, enough ethane
will be produced to build three more crackers of this size. By
some estimates, that could be 100,000 jobs in the Appalachia
region and billions of dollars of construction and tax revenue.
It would be a phenomenal opportunity for the region.”
While this renaissance is within reach, there are several
areas West Virginia and Appalachia as a whole need to focus
on in order to prepare for this level of investment and sustain
a thriving petrochemical industry.
“The first thing is finding what we call shovel-ready land,”
says Winberg. “In this part of the country—whether it is Ohio,
Rebuilding the petrochemical industry in the Appalachian area could lead to:
Source: West Virginia Department of Energy
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WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE