Representatives from the Tri-State Shale Coalition, which aims to support the shale industries in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, recently visited the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) site in Morgantown, W. Va., to discuss advanced manufacturing related to the petrochemical industry.
During the visit, Tom Esselman and Pat Getty of the Tri-State Shale Coalition met with NETL staff, discussed collaborative efforts and toured key NETL facilities.
The coalition is focusing on four areas in the region: transportation and infrastructure, research and innovation, workforce and education, and marketing and promotion.
NETL is working to develop an energy-related advanced manufacturing strategy, which incorporates the petrochemical industry. The laboratory noted that the petrochemical industry will utilize oil and gas feedstocks made available through continued shale play production.
In 2018, NETL hosted the Tri-State Shale Summit, which was organized by the coalition as a strategic planning session for core working groups.
The governors of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia founded the Tri-State Coalition with a memorandum of understanding in 2015. In 2018, the agreement was extended through 2021. In addition to the governments of all three states, the coalition is made up of economic development, philanthropic and academic organizations.
In a May 2017 analysis, the American Chemistry Council projected that the region could see investment in petrochemicals and derivatives of more than $32 billion and in plastic products of more than $3 billion.