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An antique Shell gasoline pump at an Ohio oil and gas museum

Shell: One of World's Oldest Oil Companies Shifts Its Focus To Gas

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Background

Scott Detrow / StateImpact Pennsylvania

An antique Shell gasoline pump at an Ohio oil and gas museum

Royal Dutch Shell is one of the largest and oldest energy companies in the world. Shell is active in drilling for natural gas in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale formation, with a focus on Tioga County.

Shell is also considering building a gas processing plant, called an ethane cracker, in Beaver County. Governor Corbett is convinced the petrochemical plant would kick-start a chemical processing boom near Pittsburgh, and is pushing to grant the company a $1.65 billion tax credit, spread over 25 years, to help convince it to build in Pennsylvania.

Shell would already receive a 15-year exemption from state and local taxes at the site, due to legislation signed into law in February.

In June 2012, Shell experienced a methane migration problem at a Tioga County well site.

Key Stories

June 20, 2012

Monaca, Beaver County, near the possible future site of Shell's ethane cracker

Support For Shell Tax Break In Monaca, But Skepticism Over Job Claims

June 22, 2012

Tioga County Methane Migration: Onetime Geyser Being Brought Under Control

June 19, 2012

Shell Tax Break: American Chemistry Council Conducted Jobs Study For Eight Other States, Too

Latest Posts

August 6, 2012

A Cracker Means Jobs, But Environmentalists Worry About Air Pollution

Pennsylvania’s shale boom has drill rigs popping up all over rural parts of the state. Pipeline projects, truck traffic, and hotel construction has followed. Now, industry plans to build large-scale natural gas processing plants. State officials hope to create jobs. Industry wants a larger industrial infrastructure to develop the state’s shale gas reserves. Environmentalists wonder [...]

August 3, 2012

Corbett Says Shell Ethane Cracker’s Future Is Still In Doubt

Governor Corbett says a $1.6 billion production tax credit, coupled with a 15-year tax amnesty window, is only good enough for a 50-percent chance Shell will build a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker in Beaver County. Speaking near Monaca yesterday, Corbett praised legislators for approving what could turn out to be the largest tax break in [...]

July 31, 2012

Tioga County Commissioners Meeting Dominated By Methane Questions

The Williamsport Sun-Gazette reports a Tioga County Commissioner’s meeting was dominated by questions about Shell’s Union Township methane migration problems, which StateImpact Pennsylvania provided an update on yesterday. Township resident Tom Cochran, who attended the meeting, said his concern was that “after the blowout up here, when they tested, they only tested for methane, and [...]

July 30, 2012

In Northeast Pennsylvania, Methane Migration Means Flammable Puddles And 30-Foot Geysers

A Leroy Township, Bradford County resident lights a sample of methane gas on fire. The gas has been bubbling into puddles and creeks for more than two months.

Last September, Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon declared to a Philadelphia energy conference that the problem of methane migrating through the ground near natural gas drilling sites had been fixed.  “Problem identified. Problem solved,” he told an industry-heavy crowd at the Philadelphia Convention Center. Nearly a year later,  Bradford County resident Michael Leighton is worried [...]

July 9, 2012

Radio Times Talks Energy

Between the rebirth of Philadelphia’s Sunoco refinery, a moratorium on drilling in Bucks and Montgomery County and the passage of a multi-million dollar ethane production credit aimed at Royal Dutch Shell, it’s been an interesting month for Pennsylvania’s energy economy. WHYY’s Radio Times covered those issues and more on this morning’s show. Listen here.

June 29, 2012

Ethane Cracker Deal Lifts Spending Cap

The AP has a bit more more information on changes to the tax credit on ethane purchases Governor Corbett is pushing for, as he tries to convince Shell to build an ethane cracker in Beaver County. The most important development is that legislators are lifting the annual $66 million cap on the break, which means [...]

June 28, 2012

Corbett And Legislative Leaders Agree On Cracker Tax Break Deal

The AP’s Marc Levy has the details on an agreement that will change the dynamics of the tax break Governor Corbett wants to give Royal Dutch Shell, as it weighs building an ethane cracker in Beaver County: Under the agreement, there would be no limit on the tax break—Corbett had proposed capping it at $66 [...]

Shell’s Tioga County Methane Geyser Captured On Video

A group called the Responsible Drilling Alliance has obtained video of the geyser of water and methane that shot out of the ground last week near a Shell natural gas drilling site in Union Township, Tioga County. Due to the geyser, methane bubbling into a nearby creek and gas spotted in a private water well, [...]

Corbett Administration Downsizes Ethane Cracker Job Claims

The Tribune-Review points out members of the Corbett Administration have downsized their projected jobs claims for an ethane cracker in Beaver County. Members of Gov. Tom Corbett’s staff cited job projections on Tuesday that were half what they touted this month while promoting a proposed petrochemical plant in Beaver County and related tax breaks. Royal [...]

June 27, 2012

A Closer Look At The Initial Ethane Cracker Tax Break

As legislators prepare to vote on Governor Corbett’s $1.65 billion ethane cracker tax credit, PublicSource takes a closer look at the tax break that has already been signed into law: a “Keystone Opportunity Zone” expansion giving Shell a 15-year exemption from state and local taxes: Earlier this year, the Pennsylvania Senate introduced a bill to [...]

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