The partnership between PTTGC America and Daelim Chemical USA is moving forward with a project to build an ethane cracker in Belmont County, along the Ohio River. Dan Williamson, a spokesman of the project said that the companies aimed to reach a final investment decision this summer.
The partnership on Wednesday announced that it had reached economic development agreements in which it would provide more than $47 million for a township and a school district in the coming years. In exchange, a state enterprise zone program will grant the plant a property tax waiver for 15 years.
The project will have a 1.5 million tons/year ethane cracker and 1.6 million tons/year of downstream capacity, including high-density polyethylene (HDPE), linear low-density PE (LLDPE) and metallocene linear low-density PE (mLLDPE). However, the spokesman previously said that the downstream capacity might be reconfigured.
According to Williamson, the project construction will employ thousands of workers and 450 people will work to operate the plant once it is operational. The project is expected to revive the economy of the Appalachian region. Belmont County once depended on steel, aluminum, and glass manufacturing but jobs from the sectors have long gone.
