| The highly-touted Wood county's $5 billion cracker plant has been put on hold.
The rapidly changing development and market of Marcellus and Utica Shale is facing a slow down.
The project, originally announced in November 2013, was to bring a petrochemical complex, including an ethane cracker plant, to the SABIC plastics plant in Wood County.
The Brazilian companies considering the project, Odebrecht and Braskem, said they were re-evaluating their options.
"From the beginning, we have taken a deliberate approach to Project ASCENT [Appalachian Shale Cracker Enterprise]. Under the current energy scenarios, the original configuration of Project ASCENT needs to be re-evaluated, and a final investment decision on the project will require more diligence," the companies said in a statement reported by the Pittsburgh Business Times.
The companies' statement today mirrored comments by Odebrecht vice president David Peebles in February, who told for the Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia that the company was in a period of "really deep rethinking" and reconsidering how Project ASCENT would move forward.
"The advantage of the Appalachian region of ethane is not what it was two years ago for the production of plastics," Peebles said. "We have to take a long-term view, we have to rethink what we are doing and figure out what's the best thing for our shareholders and what's the best thing in terms of strategic analysis in the use of our assets."
"With an investment of this magnitude and the changes in the worldwide energy markets, re-evaluating the best configuration for the project is understandable and consistent with the company's overall approach," said a press release.
Odebrecht closed last year on the Wood County property for about $11 million. The proposal included an ethane cracker plant, three polyethlene plants and associated infrastructure for water treatment and co-generation.
According to media reports, a Thailand-based company will announce plans for a cracker plant in Belmont County, Ohio.
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