Pending Announcement of Ohio Cracker Plant

PPTDLM Cracker’s FID Mid-Year. PTT Global Chemical is on track to make a final investment decision for a long-discussed ethane cracker plant in southeastern Ohio by mid-2020, Kallanish Energy reports. That news came earlier this week in an article in the Nikkei Asian Review, quoting chief executive Kongkrapan Intarajang. The article was posted on the project website by PTT Global Chemical.

“The petrochemical complex in the U.S. will be our second home base,” Kongkapan said. “We chose to invest in the U.S. because we can gain cheap raw material from shale gas near our location while we have a big consumer base there. This is our biggest investment due to happen this year for sustainable business development,” he said.

The company has earmarked $5 billion in capital spending for the Ohio petrochemical complex and acquisitions – with 80% going to the Ohio cracker in Belmont County. Cracker construction is expected to begin immediately after a final investment decision is announced, he told the media outlet. The complex would be completed by late 2025 with commercial operations beginning in early 2026.

The Asian Review said the company has shareholder approval to issue $500 million of debt and will seek approval in April for an offering of $4.5 billion. It also has $945 million in cash on hand. The company has a very low debt-to-equity ratio, allowing it to borrow a significant amount of money for the Ohio project, the media outlet reported.

The $6 billion project has languished for months with no final investment decision by PTT and its partner, South Korea-based Daelim Chemical USA. The cracker would be located on the 500-acre site of an old coal-fired power plant that has been razed. PTT had first proposed the project in 2015.

The plant, if built, annually produce of 1.5 million tons ethylene and other materials from ethane produced by shale drilling. The plant would use six ethane cracking furnaces and manufacture ethylene, high-quality polyethylene and linear low-density polyethylene.

PTT Global Chemical America is a subsidiary of PTT Global Chemical, Thailand’s largest integrated petrochemical company. Royal Dutch Shell is building a similar ethane cracker in Beaver County, northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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