A company based in Thailand plans to spend 100 million dollars to investigate whether it can build a petrochemical facility in Belmont County. Ohio Public Radio's Karen Kasler reports.
PTT Global Chemical will spend the next year on detailed engineering work at the possible site of an ethane cracker facility.
“This facility will take the natural gas and they will be able to crack that natural gas and break it down and create plastics,” said Gov. John Kasich. “This is a big deal when we talk about the downstream.”
Kasich says it could mean hundreds of construction jobs and then permanent positions if the company decides to build its multi-billion dollar project in Ohio – along with jobs in the textile, drug and packaging manufacturing industries that would use the plastics.