Petrochemical

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice has signed an executive order establishing a task force dedicated to creating more downstream manufacturing opportunities as the region’s petrochemical industry expands.

Enterprise Products Partners LP said Monday it’s testing support for up to 50,000 b/d of additional capacity on its Appalachia-to-Texas (ATEX) ethane pipeline.

Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LLC (CPChem) said Monday it is working with the world’s largest natural gas producer, Qatar Petroleum (QP), to develop a petrochemicals complex in Qatar.

Enterprise Products Partners LP said Tuesday it is extending its ethylene pipeline and logistics system further into South Texas to take advantage of a growing list of crackers and ethylene derivative plants underway to accommodate oil and gas growth from the Lower 48.

Prospects for a wide variety of chemical manufacturing in the Appalachian Basin are robust as low-cost methane, propane and butane supplies are expected to continue increasing in the coming years, according to a study released last week by IHS Markit.

Pembina Pipeline Corp. has set a target of 2023 to start up production in Alberta from a C$4.5 billion ($3.4 billion) petrochemical project with its Kuwait partner.

The Alberta government has doubled, to C$2 billion ($1.6 billion), a subsidy program for new petrochemical projects that increase demand for natural gas and liquid byproducts from wells and processing sites across the province.

The United States is poised to return to prominence as a low-cost region for petrochemical production thanks to the unconventional natural gas revolution, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said.

Petrochemicals are poised to become the largest driver of global oil consumption and eat up another 56 bcm of natural gas by 2030, equivalent to around half of Canada’s total consumption today, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported Friday.