The Shell cracker plant in Beaver County should be online by 2020 or 2021. What does that mean for the northwestern part of Pennsylvania?

Lance Hummer, executive director of the Keystone Community Education Council in Oil City, said, “This is the beginning of it all coming back. This is an opportunity Pennsylvania hasn’t had for many decades.”

On March 8, the North Western Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Hub Taskforce is holding a forum in Titusville to educate people on the opportunities that can come with a cracker plant. The forum, called “Regional Impact of the Petrochemical/Cracker Plant on Western Pa.,” will include sessions from Louisiana experts who have a cracker plant near them.

“That region is about seven years ahead of Pennsylvania,” Hummer said. The Pennsylvania task force reached out to officials in Louisiana to ask about preparations and for a glimpse at what the region here may experience.

“We were able to get in touch with the workforce development, education, a person that was president of the chemical association,” Hummer said. “We’re bringing them up to northwest Pennsylvania to talk about the impact on business and industry. People don’t have a real good grasp on what this cracker plant will mean.”

The Shell cracker plant will extract natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shales, and then process ethane, a natural gas liquid, into ethylene.

A flyer for the forum reads as follows: “Industry, economic and workforce development leaders from Louisiana will present on their experiences and what they have learned from the Sasol cracker plant. Leaders from the oil and gas industry in Pennsylvania will also provide updates on progress within that industry and Department of Community and Economic Development will talk about leveraging Pennsylvania’s energy assets for economic growth.”

Ethylene is used in so many products — textiles, paint and inks, plastic bags and bottles, tires and automotive products, cosmetics and more.

“The largest percentage of plastics companies are in western Pennsylvania,” Hummer said. He spoke of the era when Pennsylvania was filled with refineries, like Quaker State, Pennzoil and Wolf’s Head. “That’s really why the plastics companies cropped up in western Pennsylvania because we originally had refineries here.”

And with the state’s location over the Marcellus and Utica shales, there is an abundance of natural resources for a cracker plant, Hummer explained.

“We need to get a head start on this,” he said, “to inform business and industry what the impact could be. There is potential for so many industries.”

Hummer said the taskforce has been working to get school districts and post-secondary educational institutions involved. “We’re trying to get education to realize the types of careers they could be gearing students toward. Eighth and ninth graders now would be coming through the education system” and post-secondary education about the time when the cracker plant will be looking for qualified workers.

Entrepreneurial training is important, too, Hummer noted, “because a lot of small businesses start cropping up.” In Louisiana, the business boom has happened in about a 200-mile radius of the plant’s location.

“We’re running into people saying it’s not going to affect our area,” Hummer said. “They are so wrong.”

He said the state DCED has completed, but not yet released, an impact study of the potential impact of the cracker plant. A representative from the DCED is slated to speak at the forum in March on “Leveraging Pennsylvania’s Energy – Assets for Economic Growth.”

“It will be up to the companies as to whether they are successful,” Hummer said. “They need to become knowledgeable. That’s what we’re trying to do, teach them how to be knowledgeable and incorporate that into their strategic plans for when the cracker plant comes online.”

Hummer said 600 wells will be needed to supply the cracker plant on a daily basis, meaning shale drilling will pick up again.

Speaking of the people who should pay attention to forums like these, Hummer said, “economic development people, business and industry, the refinery (American Refining Group) — it would be great if they were here. Powdered metal companies need to come, they would be producing components needed at the cracker plant itself. Education needs to be aware of the types of careers and the types of training people are going to need.

“We need people to have a base knowledge of what this is going to mean,” he added. “Hopefully it will whet their appetite for them to go back for more information.”