New Player In The Neighborhood -- Marcus Hook Industrial Complex

The Marcus Hook makes the list of "Big Stories." First addition in quite some time.

Background: Marcus Hook Industrial Complex.

Update, September 20, 2015. TribLive is reporting:

At many shale-related events in Washington County, officials proclaim that region, with its abundant gas reserves and wells, is the “Energy Capital of the East.”

Hundreds of miles away in Philadelphia, where there is no shale drilling, leaders looking to tap into the gas boom are speaking of an energy hub that former Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Mike Krancer last week said would “rival and surpass Houston soon.”

The steps toward connecting both claims are taking place on 800 acres along the Delaware River south of the city in Marcus Hook, where rusty stacks and holding tanks are giving way to gleaming towers and pipes.

Nearly 1,000 contractors enter the site each day to convert the former Sunoco oil refinery into a terminal at which sister company Sunoco Logistics can receive and process hundreds of thousands of barrels of propane, ethane and other liquids pulled from Marcellus and Utica shale wells 300 miles to the west.

If Pennsylvania is to take full advantage of its shale boom, industry leaders and observers say it needs projects such as a revitalized Marcus Hook Industrial Complex to move products across state lines and overseas while attracting manufacturers to set up close by.

“Whether it's natural gas or other products, they need a final destination,” said Jonathan Hunt, senior director for terminal operations at Philadelphia-based Sunoco Logistics, which is spending at least $3 billion on the multi-phase Mariner East pipeline project to connect the shale fields of Western Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to the revamped terminal.

Tale of two states: Pennsylvania and New York.