Update On The Proposed $4 Billion Petrochemical Plant For North Dakota -- October 1, 2015; Nameplate Capacity to Increase From 1.5 To 2 Million Tons/Year

Updates

March 3, 2016: update; very extensive update

February 6, 2016: I believe this case is PU-15-788 at the North Dakota Pubilc Utilities Commission site. 
 

Original Post

Oil & Gas Journal is reporting:

• Badlands NGLs LLC, Denver, announced the "CLR deal" September 25, 2015
• neither the value of the contract with CLR nor the volume of ethane committed were disclosed 
• the duration of the supply contract was also not disclosed
• however, Badlands did confirm that it has decided to expand the nameplate production capacity of the PE plant to a proposed 2 million tons/year (original plan: 1.53 million tons/year)
• new capacity based on discussions with North Dakota and Western Canadian NGL-sourced ethane feedstock suppliers
• licensing agreements with key technology partners were signed over the last several weeks
• precise timeline for project's completion not disclosed
• the plant was first announced in an October 13, 2014, press release
• at that time, the company had agreements with two strategic partners for the plant

• Spain's Tecnicas Reunidas SA, Madrid
• Vinmar Projects LLC, a subsidiary of Vinmar International Ltd., Houston

• final site selection was to have been made by end of 2014 
• Badlands has signed a mutually binding, MOU with Vinmar; the latter to take 100% of PE output produced by the proposed project for 15 years
• as of October, 2014, the project required a capital investment of about $4 billion to complete

The poll remains open.

This is an artist's conception of the proposed plant, looking north from Dickinson: Williston would be to the north ("up" in the picture) and Watford City to the east (at the "right side" of the picture). There will be a row of trees planted around the site to help the facility blend in with the rest of North Dakota.

[In the far, upper right corner of the graphic, one can still see the "ball of dust."]

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An Aside

To give one an idea of what a $4 billion petrochemical plant might entail, this is an interesting story over at PennEnergy and Shell's plans for an ethane cracker facility in western Pennsylvania:

Shell Chemicals announced Tuesday that it will pay $69 million to relocate a western Pennsylvania water source that's currently on the site of the company's proposed ethane cracker plant.

The company said it's funding nearly all of the $72 million project in Beaver County, and the Center Township Water Authority will pick up the rest of the tab. The project will replace existing drinking wells and create a new water intake site and treatment facility for the authority.

Shell could end up using the water facilities if it moves forward with a multibillion-dollar petrochemical plant at the former Horsehead Corp. site in Potter Township, but that amount would be less than 10 percent of the total water sold by the system.