News Post
ASCENT project now in doubt with Braskem reportedly selling site
Multiple sources reported that the Brazil-based petrochemical giant has told West Virginia officials that it would not be building an ethane cracker in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Brazilian petrochemicals firm Braskem SA is looking to sell a site in West Virginia where it had planned to build a plant that would have included polyethylene resin. Members of the Joint Committee on Natural Gas Development were told the company has put the property back on the market.
"Due to a number of recent inquiries about its site in Parkersburg, Braskem has engaged a financial adviser to help evaluate strategic alternatives for the site," West Virginia Department of Commerce press secretary Andy Malinoski said in a statement.
Braskem and Odebrecht had initially announced plans for a joint venture to build a $4 billion cracker on the former industrial site, but then in April 2015 announced a pause in the planning of the Appalachian Shale Cracker Enterprise, or ASCENT. The Braskem cracker, like the Shell cracker, would use Appalachian basin natural gas liquids as a feedstock to make plastics. Antero Resources had signed a deal in 2014 to be the primary supplier of ethane to the Braskem cracker.
The potential of the Appalachian region's third ethane cracker — beyond one being built by Royal Dutch Shell in Potter Township and one nearing a final investment decision in Belmont County, Ohio — is in doubt with the decision by Braskem to not go ahead with the project.
That doesn't, however, mean a third cracker won't be built. It's being marketed to other potential builders. And it has no impact on the development of the Shell cracker, which is well underway, and a final investment decision by PTT Global Chemical and Daelim on the Belmont County, Ohio, cracker project.
Braskem didn't respond to a request for comment.
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