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Shell Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex

(Redirected from Pennsylvania Shell ethane cracker plant)

The Shell Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex,[2][3][4] formally known as Shell Polymers Monaca, is an ethylene cracker and three polyethylene production plants located in Potter Township, Pennsylvania, United States, owned and operated by Shell Oil Company, the American subsidiary of supermajor oil company Royal Dutch Shell.[5] The plant is near the interchange of Interstate 376 and Pennsylvania Route 18, about 25 miles (40 km) from Pittsburgh. Operations began in November 2022.[6] The nameplate capacity is 1.6 million tons per year of plastic pellets.[1][7]

Shell Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex
Construction of the Shell Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex along the Ohio River, Beaver County, Pennsylvania in January 2019
Shell Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex is located in Pennsylvania
Shell Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex
Shell ethylene cracker
Map
LocationPotter Township, PA
Coordinates40°40′8.8926″N 80°20′11.349″W / 40.669136833°N 80.33648583°W / 40.669136833; -80.33648583
ProductsPolyethylene
Area386 acres[1]
Owner(s)Shell Oil Company

The site also includes a natural gas power plant to support both the plant and the local electric grid, a 900 ft (270 m)-long cooling tower, a rail system with over 3,000 freight cars,[1] numerous loading facilities for both trains and trucks,[2] a water treatment plant, an office building, a laboratory, and an innovation center.[8] The complex cost around $14 billion to build.[9] In July 2025 it was put up for sale by Shell.[10]

Site history

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The ___location of the plant has had a long history as an industrial site. Both Horsehead Corporation and Koppers had plants on the site; Koppers unofficially incorporated the area as Kobuta. Before its industrial use, the area had been farmland owned by a local family, which included a private cemetery (albeit with unmarked graves) that was discovered after Shell purchased the property for cleanup; the company informed living descendants in the area of th3e skeletal remains.[11]

Shell involvement

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Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia engaged in a tax competition for the plant. In 2012, Pennsylvania structured a deal requiring Shell to invest at least $1 billion in Pennsylvania and create at least 2,500 construction jobs in exchange for a 25-year tax incentive of $66 million per year and tied to production, reducing Shell's tax by up to 20 per cent. The combined incentive could reach $1.65 billion.[12] Shell announced the Pennsylvania site on March 15, 2012.[13] The deal was one of the largest tax incentives in Pennsylvania's history.[1]

Shell began leasing the bulk of the property from Horsehead in 2012, which promptly closed the zinc plant on the site and began cleanup of the site in preparation of potentially opening a cracker plant on the site, which would be used to convert natural gas products into ethylene and then into plastics.[5][14] Shell had selected the site due to the ongoing Marcellus natural gas trend and the site's prime ___location within the Marcellus Shale.[1] By 2015, after executing several short-term lease extensions, Shell purchased the property outright from Horsehead, and subsequently purchasing other nearby properties, effectively absorbing all of Kobuta.[15][16]

Shell pledged with Beaver County officials on environmental cleanup regardless if it opened the proposed plant, and in a worst-case scenario prepare the area land for at least some sort of future industrial use if Shell decided not to build there. This included building a massive bridge over PA 18, commenced in 2015,[17] to connect both sides of the property without requiring an intersection along the route, as well as a Shell-funded rerouting of PA 18 and infrastructure improvements to I-376. Shell also gave a donation to the Beaver County recycling center so the center could extend its operating hours.[1]

Despite a downturn in oil prices, on June 7, 2016, Shell announced it would build the plant.[18][12] In a press release, Shell stated that 70% of polyethylene customers in North America were within a 700-mile (1,100 km) radius of Pittsburgh and that the ___location would be more cost-effective for its customers than at existing facilities along the Gulf Coast, which unlike North Central Appalachia are susceptible to the Atlantic hurricane season.[5] Shell estimated the project would create 6,000 construction jobs to build the site and 600 permanent jobs for employees working at the plant.[18]

Construction

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The plant is pictured under construction during a visit by president Donald Trump in August 2019.

In 2015, Shell began preparing the site for future construction, moving 7.2 million cubic yards of dirt, building new bridges and a new rail line, and completing a total relocation of PA Route 18. Docking and bulkhead facilities to be used during construction were created by Alberici.[4] Construction on the plant itself began on November 8, 2017.[8] As of 2019, over 5,000 employees were working on construction.[1]

On September 20, 2018, two of the world's largest cranes arrived on site, one 700 feet (210 m) tall and the other 430 feet (130 m) tall.[19]

On September 25, 2018 in a conference with the Wall Street Journal, Ben van Beurden, the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, said that the project was within budget and ahead of schedule.[20]

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection approved two permits for a 97 miles (156 km)-long pipeline to feed the cracker plant on December 20, 2018.[21] Called the Falcon Ethane Pipeline, it connects ethane sources in Houston, Pennsylvania, Scio, Ohio, and Cadiz, Ohio to the plant.[22] Construction on the pipeline began in March 2019.[23]

Regional economic impact

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The Penn-Beaver Hotel of Rochester, a building dating to the 1920s, once serving as a luxury hotel, was restored due to demand from plant construction.[24] Parts of Northern Lights Shopping Center in Economy were demolished for redevelopment, more than likely due to the plant.[25] However, as of January 2020, Economy Borough has not been informed of any future redevelopment plans at the site.[26] In 2018 Mount Airy Casinos won the licensing to build a satellite casino just 12 miles (19 km) north of the cracker plant, although that plan was rejected by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board in November 2019 [27]

The Southern Beltway, which had already confirmed would be extending its second leg in 2020 from U.S. Route 22 to Interstate 79, moved the project up a year solely as a result of the proposed plant.[28]

Project opposition

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In late 2015, a group of environmentalists submitted an appeal to Pennsylvania's Environmental Hearing Board to challenge the air quality permit that was granted for the proposed plant; the group argued that the state should have required stricter monitoring requirements for fugitive pollutant emissions from the plant.[29]

The state of Pennsylvania allowed the factory to release 2.2 million tons of carbon dioxide each year while Shell anticipated the plant's emissions would be below that level.[1]

Residents also expressed concerns about the network of pipelines that would carry ethane to the plant, as existing pipelines have already caused problems. In September 2018, a landslide caused by heavy rains caused the Revolution pipeline, operated by Sunoco parent Energy Transfer Partners, to explode. One house was destroyed, other homes and vehicles were damaged, power lines were downed, and roads were closed; no one was injured.[30][1][31]

Operation

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Operations started in November 2022, but the complex had to be shut down only a few months later due to a problem with a system that burns off unwanted gases.[7] Shell agreed to pay $10 million in a settlement with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection regarding air emissions violations at the plant. The agreement included a civil penalty of nearly $5 million and an additional $5 million toward environmental projects in local communities. The plant restarted in May 2023. [7]

In October 2024, Shell announced that the complex would fail to meet its profitability target of $1 to $1.5 billion EBITDA that year.[32]

On June 4, 2025, the plant's #5 ethane furnace experienced a fire and explosion.[33][34] The following month, Shell CEO Wael Swan announced that he was looking to sell the Monaca complex due to financial underperformance.[10]

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Morgantown, West Virginia country-folk musician Charles Wesley Godwin wrote his song "Cranes of Potter" about the hypothetical backstory of the woman whose buried bones were found during excavation for the complex, which he saw driving from West Virginia to his studio in Pennsylvania.[35]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corkery, Michael (August 12, 2019). "A Giant Factory Rises to Make a Product Filling Up the World: Plastic". The New York Times. Retrieved August 12, 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Remarks by President Trump During Tour of the Shell Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex | Monaca, PA". whitehouse.gov. August 13, 2019. Retrieved August 18, 2019 – via National Archives.
  3. ^ Fadulu, Lola; Haberman, Maggie (August 13, 2019). "At Chemical Plant Under Construction, Trump Builds List of Grievances". The New York Times. Retrieved August 18, 2019.
  4. ^ a b "Shell Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex – Early Works". Alberici. Retrieved August 18, 2019.
  5. ^ a b c Shell takes final investment decision to build a new petrochemicals complex in Pennsylvania, US Royal Dutch Shell (June 7, 2016)
  6. ^ "Shell's ethane cracker, a mammoth plastics plant near Pittsburgh, begins operations". November 15, 2022.
  7. ^ a b c Rubinkam, Michael (May 24, 2023). "Shell agrees to pay $10 million for air pollution at massive new Pennsylvania petrochemical plant". Associated Press. Retrieved June 2, 2025.
  8. ^ a b Stonesifer, Jared. "Shell officially starts construction on $6 billion ethane cracker plant". The Times. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  9. ^ Scott, Alex (January 21, 2025). "Shell to pull back from chemicals". Chemical & Engineering News. Retrieved August 13, 2025.
  10. ^ a b Daly, Tom (July 31, 2025). "Shell Steps Up Efforts to 'Stop the Bleeding' in Chemicals". Energy Intelligence. Retrieved August 13, 2025.
  11. ^ Investigation underway to identify bones found on Shell site The Beaver County Times (August 20, 2015)
  12. ^ a b Bumsted, Brad (June 7, 2016). "Pennsylvania tax incentive plan played major role in luring Shell cracker plant". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
  13. ^ "What's An Ethane Cracker? (article list)". NPR. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
  14. ^ Shell to build billion-dollar 'cracker' in Beaver County Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (March 15, 2012)
  15. ^ Shell buys Horsehead property for $13.5 million for proposed ethane plant Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (June 15, 2015)
  16. ^ Shell buys former Kobuta Hotel property in Beaver County Pittsburgh Business Times (March 24, 2016)
  17. ^ Stonesifer, Jared (August 30, 2015). "Shell Chemicals starts building bridge over Route 18 in Potter Township". The Beaver County Times. Retrieved July 23, 2016.
  18. ^ a b Shell confirms it will build cracker plant in Potter Twp. The Beaver County Times (June 7, 2016)
  19. ^ Pennsylvania, Jared StonesiferGateHouse Media. "Two of world's largest cranes come to Pennsylvania construction site". Athens Banner-Herald. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  20. ^ Stonesifer, Jared. "Shell CEO: Cracker plant project ahead of schedule, within budget". The Times. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  21. ^ "DEP approves ethane pipeline to Shell's cracker in Beaver County". StateImpact Pennsylvania. December 20, 2018. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  22. ^ "Falcon Ethane Pipeline System". www.shell.us. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  23. ^ Stonesifer, Jared (March 14, 2019). "Shell's Falcon ethane pipeline enters construction phase". The Times. Retrieved August 3, 2019.
  24. ^ "Rochester Hotel - Main Site". Rochester Hotel. Retrieved September 24, 2021.
  25. ^ Kurutz, Daveen Rae. "Northern Lights owners planning to demolish part of shopping plaza". The Times.
  26. ^ Demolition resumes at Northern Lights
  27. ^ Denied: Big Beaver mini-casino denied by Pa. Gaming Control Board
  28. ^ "Corbett breaks ground for new Southern Beltway leg". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. May 12, 2014.
  29. ^ Frazier, Reid (August 6, 2015). "Enviro groups appeal air permit for Shell's ethane cracker". StateImpact Pennsylvania. National Public Radio. Retrieved August 14, 2016.
  30. ^ Phillips, Susan; Frazier, Reid (September 10, 2018). "Natural gas pipeline blast in Beaver County prompts evacuation". StateImpact Pennsylvania. NPR. Retrieved August 12, 2019.
  31. ^ Sandoval, Polo (September 10, 2018). "Natural gas line explosion leads to evacuations in western Pennsylvania town". CNN. Retrieved August 12, 2019.
  32. ^ "Shell's EBITDA target for Monaca facility under threat". ieefa.org. Retrieved August 13, 2025.
  33. ^ Frazier, Reid (June 6, 2025). "Explosion, smoke reported at Shell plant in Beaver County". The Allegheny Front. Retrieved June 10, 2025.
  34. ^ Litvak, Anya (June 6, 2025). "Shell still investigating fire at Beaver County ethane furnace". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved June 10, 2025.
  35. ^ Tady, Scott (December 29, 2021). "Charles Wesley Godwin's West Virginia roots (and Beaver County ties) taking him far". Beaver County Times. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
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