Marcellus Drilling News reported late last week that the proposed petrochemical “cracker” plant in the Dilles Bottom area of Belmont County is “indefinitely delayed.”
The website included the following: “PTT Global Chemical has finally come clean and admitted there will be no FID (financial investment decision) for the cracker plant – not until they secure a partner to help finance the project. In other words, it’s on indefinite hold.”
The potential project was first announced in the summer of 2015 but has been delayed ever since. PTT Global America did have a financial partner for the $10 billion project in Daelim Construction, but the firm backed out soon after the global pandemic begin in March 2020. PTT did partner with Energy Storage Ventures to develop a $250 million natural gas liquids storage and transportation facility in July 2020, but an announcement about a replacement for Daelim has not yet been distributed by officials of the Thailand-based corporation.
The digital news site stated in its report that PTT will not move forward until a financial partner is willing to invest more than $1 billion into the $10 billion project.
That fact, however, has not squelched the confidence of Marshall County Sheriff Bill Helms.
“I know the amount PTT is looking for from a financial partner seems like a ton of money, but I personally don’t think they are going to have a hard time finding a partner. I understand that it is delayed until they do, but we are sitting on the largest reserve of liquid natural gas in the country if not the world,” Helms said. “I would think there’s a lot of profit to made on such a project, and that is why I believe a lot of corporations are looking for a piece of that pie.
“The proposed project is a massive one, and I think we all expected delays, stumbling blocks, and red tape,” the sheriff said. “I believe it’s just delayed again. I believe they will find a financial partner, and the project will be a go. Of course, I can’t put a timeframe on it, but I just think there is so much money to be made.”
That is why Helms, in his first year in elected office, plans to continue to prepare his department to best protect the residents of Marshall County. Helms, in fact, learned many lessons when the industries initially arrived in the region in the late 2000s.
“That project is always on our minds here at the sheriff’s office, especially after we got a taste of how busy it was when the industries first arrived here in Marshall County about a decade ago,” Helms explained. “It was incredible, really, and I had never seen anything like it. Our roads were so full, the grocery stores were packed, and there were camper sites popping up all over the county. At times, I’ll admit, it was tough keeping up with it all.
“That caught us by surprise because no one announced all of those workers were coming here,” he said. “With this cracker project, thousands of workers are expected to flow into this area, so we are thinking about that and coming up with some plans for coverage. That remains on my mind because it’s my responsibility to make sure we are prepared for such a situation for the people of Marshall County.”
Impact of Piperliners, Frackers, Drillers
Natural gas and oil are harvested in Marshall County from the Marcellus and Utica shale plays, and pipelines now crisscross the county’s 312 square miles.
While Williams Energy has the most visible presence in Marshall County with facilities along the Ohio River and in other rural areas, more than 30 companies now are operating, as well. Once the influx of workers took place, his deputies immediately responded to a record number of requests for service because of criminal activity.
“We did see more of the drug trade here in the county when all of the workers of those gas, oil, and pipelines companies were here. One of the things we had never seen here before was the purity of the methamphetamine that was being trafficked here at that time,” Helms recalled. “We made a sizeable arrest of a guy who traveled with a group of pipeliners so he could develop a market for selling it. That stuff was 100 percent pure.
“When you have an increased drug trade in your area, there is an increase in crime across the board. A popular theory believed by a lot of people is that every crime is somehow connected to mind-altering substances,” he said. “And unfortunately, we have seen that with the opiates and with the meth.”
If Not PTT, Who?
The Thailand-based corporation has funded a number of financial transactions in the Dilles Bottom area of Belmont County, including the purchase of more than 500 acres of property along the Ohio River.
In mid-2020, officials with PTT Global America stated the petrochemical plant was on hold because of the worldwide pandemic, the same reasons offered by Daelim executives when announcing the corporation’s retreat on the project. JobsOhio has supplied more than $1 million to the project, but PTT has spent over $100 million to this point.
“There has been a lot of work that’s been performed on that land, and PTT has purchased a lot of properties over there, too, and those things are reasons why I believe something is going to happen there,” Helms insisted. “I know there is a lot of talk about solar and wind energy, but let’s face it; America is nowhere near being renewable energy independent.
“And natural gas is used for much more than heating our homes,” he continued. “There are so many products that come from natural gas that are used every day across the world. We need those products, and we want them so those producing those things are not going to stop any time soon. The potential definitely is there, and that’s why I believe someone is going to pick it up and go with it.”
