For background to this story, see these two posts:
From a reader:
The Badlands NGLs president was interviewed
by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune- about where the [new petrochemical] plant would be located. He stated
it would be where mid-stream companies deliver the ethane. He said it
may be easier to just build it near an interstate gas pipeline, where
the ethane could be separated from the methane. That is the reason that
south-central or northeast North Dakota are likely.
Only two OneOK plants and Hess are
capable of removing the ethane from the gas, and the pipelines are at
the point of being saturated with ethane, so for just a safety issue, an
ethylene plant is needed to get gas out of ND.
He also said that is was likely that a polypropylene plant would get built, and a mega refinery would be built near Williston.
This is the link to the story the reader referenced:
http://www.startribune.com/business/280361712.html?page=all&prepage=1&c=y#continue.
This is quite a story; much more than just a "where is the new plant going to be built." There is a lot of background information.
[See comment below: the full interview was published in the
Minneapolis Star-Tribune a couple of days ago. If i can find it, I will post the link later.]
There are many, many interesting data points in the article; this is one:
North Dakota natural gas contains high levels of
ethane, propane and butane — the natural gas liquids — which helps
explain the industry’s delay in building the infrastructure, said Justin
Kringstad, director of the North Dakota Pipeline Authority.
“The
Bakken gas is incredibly rich,” he said. “It’s a very high-density,
high BTU gas, so much so that a lot of the plants being constructed
here, they’ve taken some very special engineering and expertise to get
them to work properly.”
The
high-BTU gas is what attracted Bill Gilliam, CEO of Badlands NGL, the
firm raising money for a petrochemical plant in northeast, south central
or southwest North Dakota. The factory will need ethane, which accounts
for up to roughly 6 percent of raw natural gas. By conservative
estimates North Dakota is producing enough gas to make 150,000 barrels
per day, enough to fill 10 Olympic swimming pools.
Badlands
would need about half that much, and would employ 500 people at the
plant and at a headquarters in Bismarck. Net job creation would be 2,375
positions, Goenner, the economist, said, based on similar projects. The
plant’s plastic beads — created using steam and ethane and high
pressure — would travel by train to factories or shipping ports.
Such
a plant in North Dakota would enjoy not just an abundance of the
necessary raw material — Gilliam believes key pipelines passing through
North Dakota are close to taking on dangerous levels of ethane — but
also easier shipping to key industrial centers than polyethylene plants
on the Gulf of Mexico.
And it continues:
“Let’s look at the markets that actually buy polyethylene in the United
States. They’re in the industrial Midwest, which by rail is closer to
North Dakota than it is to the Gulf Coast,” Gilliam said.
“Taking
finished polyethylene by rail to Vancouver or to Seattle, or even to
Duluth on the St. Lawrence Seaway are all things that are easy to do in
North Dakota, and easier than going through the Panama Canal.”
The interview can be found at the same source, in the
Business section:
I assume these articles will be archived at a later date, retrievable with subscription.