Houses at Dilles Bottom in the Ohio River valley opposite Moundsville, WV
From an Article by Jennifer Compton—Strough, Wheeling Intelligencer, August 16, 2021
PHOTO — Houses continue to come crashing down — and more property is being acquired — in the Dilles Bottom area in anticipation of a future ethane cracker plant being built.
Dan Williamson, Columbus-based spokesman for PTT Global Chemical America, said the developer still plans to eventually move forward with its proposed petrochemical manufacturing project. He added that the demolition of three homes in that area during the past week is a continuation of the lengthy site preparation process.
“That was a pretty full neighborhood five years ago,” WIlliamson said of the chosen location that includes the property where the former FirstEnergy R.E. Burger coal-fired power plant once stood. “One of the first things we did in 2016 or so was to have a series of meetings with residents to explain this would be a substantial complex — that it would disrupt their lives.”
When offered the opportunity to sell their properties to the company, Williamson said, the majority of nearby residents did so. Ever since then, Thailand-based PTTGCA has been working to gradually demolish homes that have become vacant. He explained that when houses are vacated, they immediately begin to become unsafe. Not only do the structures deteriorate, but empty homes can attract trespassers and even animals.
The three homes razed during recent days bring the total number of demolitions at the site to 14. Williamson said this “closes the book” on tearing down homes PTTGCA already has purchased. Still, more demolition work may lie in the future. Williamson said the company is now working with area residents to acquire two more properties.
Activity at the proposed plant site has slowed somewhat in recent years, a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the withdrawal of PTTGCA’s investment partner, Daelim Chemical USA of South Korea. This slowdown has led to speculation that the project is “dead” or that it will only move forward under another developer. Williamson, though, said this is not the case.
“Actions speak louder than words,” Williamson said, noting that PTTGCA continues to invest money and resources to buy property and develop the site. “That is not something they would do unless they intended to go forward.”
Williamson stressed, however, that no final investment decision has been made and that PTTGCA continues to search for a new investment partner. He said he has no timeline for when an official announcement might be made.
Launched in April 2015, the project has been in the works for more than six years. In addition to property acquisition and site preparation, the effort has included obtaining air and water pollution permits, securing grant funding and ensuring the availability of necessary ethane storage capacity, infrastructure and a freight transportation network.
PTTGC is Thailand’s largest petrochemical producer, according to the Bangkok Post. Its American subsidiary, PTTGCA, is exploring the Belmont County project. It holds a more than 500-acre site along the Ohio River south of Shadyside in Belmont County and has invested millions in property acquisition and site preparation.
If it is built, the plant would use six natural gas-fired furnaces to “crack,” or break apart, ethane molecules. The resulting ethylene or polyethylene could be used as a component of plastics, textiles and household or industrial chemicals.
Ethane is a natural gas liquid that is abundant in the local natural gas stream. Plans are evolving for construction of an ethane storage facility in northern Monroe County, in salt caverns located about 8 miles from the PTTGCA site at Dilles Bottom.
Opponents of the project have questioned its viability in the current economy, as well as its potential negative impact on the local environment and on residents’ health. Those groups, including the Concerned Ohio River Residents, tout “a cleaner, more sustainable and financially viable alternative” industry and a more diversified economy not tied to fossil fuels as the best path forward for the region.
For his part, Williamson has said that PTTGCA works hard to respond to residents’ concerns and has a track record as an environmentally conscious company in Asia.
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See also: PTTGC America’s Ohio complex on hold until new partner secured, Kristen Hays, S & P Global Platts, August 26, 2021
PTTGC America’s final investment decision on a new petrochemical complex in southeast Ohio remains on indefinite hold until the company secures a new partner in the project, the company said in an email August 25th.
“PTTGCA is currently focused on securing a partner for the project,” the email said. “Once there is a partner in place, the company will be in a position to reach FID.”
In July 2020, the company announced it had struck a deal with Energy Storage Ventures to develop a $250 million natural gas liquids storage and transportation facility for the proposed complex. The facility would be the first underground NGL storage site in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations.
Shortly before PTTGCA announced the storage deal, the company said that its former partner in the petrochemical complex, South Korea’s Daelim, had withdrawn from the project.
Daelim had signed on to the project in February 2018, and the companies had planned a final investment decision, or FID, by the end of that year. More recently, the company had aimed FID by early 2020, but COVID-19 related delays pushed that to early 2021 and then without a new target date until a partner is secured.
According to permitting documents, PTTGC’s project includes a 1.5 million mt/year cracker, two 350,000 mt/year high density polyethylene plants, a 450,000 mt/year HDPE plant and a 450,000 mt/year linear low density PE plant.
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