From the Akron Beacon Journal:
Ohio’s Utica shale in generating enough liquid ethane to support new so-called cracker plants.
That assessment came Tuesday from Cleveland State University economist Iryna Lendel, a speaker at the day-long Utica Summit II at Kent State University’s Stark Campus.
At least four cracker cracks to turn ethane into ethylene, a key ingredient in making plastic, have been proposed in Ohio, West Virginia and western Pennsylvania.
The Utica and Marcellus shale natural gas wells in those three states are producing enough ethane to support three large cracker plants, said Lendel, whose comments were based on a preliminary economic assessment of the Utica shale. The report is expected to be completed by December.
Nice.