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Shell Extends Option On Pa. Site For Cracker Plant

According to a news release Tuesday, Horsehead Corp.'s agreement extends the time Shell has to buy the site about 35 miles northwest of Pittsburgh and includes plans to start demolishing the zinc plantearly next year at Shell's expense.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A company closing its western Pennsylvania zinc plant says Shell Chemical LP has extended and amended an option agreement to purchase the site, which Shell might use for an ethane cracking plant.

According to a news release Tuesday, Horsehead Corp.'s agreement extends the time Shell has to buy the site about 35 miles northwest of Pittsburgh and includes plans to start demolishing the zinc plantearly next year at Shell's expense.

Shell officials did not immediately comment on the announcement, but a company spokeswoman aid in November that the company's "evaluation of the site continues" although that "typically takes several years." A Horsehead spokesman didn't immediately return a call to clarify the length of the new option.

The new plant would convert ethane from Marcellus and Utica Shale natural gas into other products.

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