- CB&I-Lummus Project
Dominion Resources has selected CB&I-Lummus, which is a nonunion contractor from Texas, to build the $500 million natural gas processing plant in Marshall County. The news comes as a blow to local union construction workers and contractors who need the jobs such a project will create, although some local crafts may get work through sub-contractors. According to Tom Gray, president of the Upper Ohio Valley Building Trades Council, “How much of their workforce will come from Texas and beyond we can only guess”.
The plant will be located next to the PPG plant at Natrium and will take natural gas to separate out the other chemicals, like ethane, propane and butane. Called a fractionation plant, it will be a key facility to allowing more Marcellus shale drilling. The Marcellus gas in Northern WV and Southwest PA is called “wet gas” meaning it has perhaps 10% more valuable, high-BTU components. This wet gas can’t be put directly into a pipeline because it burns too hot and ruins gas furnaces and turbines in gas user facilities.
CB&I is one of the world large engineering, procurement and construction companies and a major process technology licensor. With about 13,000 employees worldwide, CB&I offers a full scope of services, from conceptual design and technology licensing, through engineering, procurement, fabrication and construction, to final commissioning of new facilities. The company originated in 1889 as the Chicago Bridge & Iron company.
In 2007, CB&I acquired Lummus Global, a leading provider of process technologies used in the oil & gas and petrochemical industries. Lummus has expertise in ethylene and olefins technologies, having licensed approximately 40 percent of all such projects worldwide over the last decade, as well as for projects involving hydrocracking. With approximately 3,000 employees, Lummus Global has 70 proprietary technologies, more than 1,500 patents and patent applications.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
See, I told you so. There will be mighty few jobs for West Virginia citizens to work on in the Marcellus shale fields. This is the way it works. Companies promise work for the local population and then renege on it. It’s an old story and a sad one for our local people. Meg.
“It’s an old story and a sad one for our local people.”
Old story indeed. Sadly, history shows us that most West Virginians will never learn…..coal, timber, oil, and now the Marcellus Shale.
I wonder if this is same company that used to be called CE LUMMUS, I worked for them, in the 70′s; back then they were a decent company to work for. Sad its going to be mostly non union people, with unionism at an all time low, maybe its time to picket this place. People need to be aware that if they do use non union workers,, they have to abide by Davis Bacon Act,, prevailing wage, for all aspects of the construction,, from laborers to skilled trades,, but they will find a way around it.
I just want to put out there that while some companies may use out of state workers not all of them do. I moved, permantly I may add, from Texas to run a local shop that is here thanks to the shale. Myself and one other person came from Texas to get things going. Every other employee we have is local and we are proud of it. We have both made this our new home and helped to provide jobs here. I also want to add that even the workers that are here from out of state with other companies still help the economy. Do you think these people don’t eat, buy clothes, need a place to live, etc etc? The local restaraunts and stores are making money, they in turn hire people. They rent apartments or houses, also providing someone local with income. How about all of the support that companies like Range Resources and Chesapeake give to the local communities? Everyone wants to down the people here for the shale and personally I am growing tired of it. Let all of us pack up our stuff and move back out, taking the money, local support, and jobs with us then. Would you feel better then?
I have nothing against local workers and agree we should use them, but I do understand where people wouldn’t want to use union workers. I watched a small rest area take over a year to be built on I-70 outside of Wheeling thanks to union workers. I have seen large office buildings in Texas go up quicker than that. Hire union and watch the job take 5 times longer to get done by over paid workers that can do whatever they want because you can’t touch them or they protest and everything else.