The American Chemistry Council (ACC), which has done numerous studies of the downstream impact of shale gas on North American economics, recently focused on a potential Appalachian Storage Hub.
In this study ACC looked at a scenario of 350 to 400 k barrels per day of ethane available by 2025 in the Appalachian Basin, a figure widely accepted and confirmed by a number of midstream companies. It assumes that a storage and pipeline hub is built which attracts additional chemical downstream investment.
Raw materials and energy for chemical production are economically advantaged with production in the Basin, versus other global and even US Gulf Coast locations. This potentially leads to $36 billion in new chemicals and plastics industry investments. From this perspective, the sizeable investments needed for an Appalachian Storage Hub are justified and the game changing nature of a hub confirmed.