A company proposing a polyethylene plant for North Dakota is also looking elsewhere to set up a similar operation in the United States, according to a published report.
The Jamestown (S.D.) Sun reported that Badlands NGLs LLC CEO William Gilliam said his firm has commitments for a 10-year supply of ethane that would be the raw material for a PE plant. Gilliam did not disclose where a second plant might locate.
According to the newspaper, Gilliam said Badlands NGLs is also close to deciding on a North Dakota location and related 10-year supply agreement with the state's top three producers of ethane, a plentiful byproduct of oil and natural gas production from fracking shale deposits.
Badlands NGLs officials at its Denver headquarters were not immediately available to comment on Gilliam's reported statements.
Badlands NGLs last fall proposed an ethane/PE complex could come on stream in North Dakota by late 2017, but the newspaper report said Gilliam now considers the startup date a moving target.
Vantage Pipeline US LP has proposed a competing project to build a pipeline that when connected to other pipelines would allow shipping North Dakota ethane several hundred miles away to Nova Chemicals Corp.'s existing polyethylene/petrochemical complex in Joffre, Alberta, according to the newspaper.
Most of the ethane now collected in North Dakota's oil and gas fields is burned off. The state of North Dakota wants petroleum companies to cut back on flaring the ethane and related gases, but it also wants the chemicals removed before oil and gas is transported out of the state.