North Dakota Group Plans $4b Chemical Plant
Badlands NGL LLC said on Monday it will build a $4 billion chemical plant in North Dakota to produce polyethylene, a key plastic used to make packaging, pipes and scores of other products.
The plant will use ethane, a type of natural gas, as the primary feedstock, helping to cull flaring in the state. Ethane, which is extracted along with oil, is often burnt off and wasted because the state has limited capacity to process it.
Badlands NGL, a private equity firm, is working with Spain's Tecnicas Reunidas and Vinmar Projects, a Texas-based private contractor, on the plant.
The group hopes to select a site by the end of the year. Construction should take three years, and once operational, the plant will have about 500 employees, the group said.
The plant will be able to produce 3.3 billion pounds of polyethylene per year, on par with others in the U.S. Gulf Coast. The group said it hopes to sell most of that material in the United States, though most of the demand for polyethylene is in the South and Northeast.
State leaders touted the project as the largest private investment in North Dakota's history.
"This project is fully aligned with our goals to reduce flaring, add value to our energy resources right here in North Dakota and create diverse job opportunities across the state," Gov. Jack Dalrymple said in a press release.
(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Richard Chang)
