Delaware County caught a glimpse of the impact energy has on its economy and quality of life, plus the potential it has to do in multitudes more if, as advocates explained, the opportunity is seized.
“There’s a lot of opportunity,” Joseph McGinn, vice president of Public Affairs at Energy Transfer, said. “There’s a lot that’s been done already and there’s a lot of potential right here in Delaware County and Marcus Hook to do even more.”
Jim Welty, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, explained how Pennsylvania is the second largest natural gas producer in the United States.
With nearly 12,000 producing wells statewide, 7.4 trillion cubic feet was collected last year alone, enough to heat 115 million homes, Welty said.
They were among the speakers at a panel discussion hosted by the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce. It was entitled “All About Propane & Energy Reliability.”
Marcus Hook Industrial Complex in a 2017 photo. (DAILY TIMES)
McGinn explained how the Marcus Hook Industrial Complex is positioned for growing demand, drawing on the facility’s own history.
The Marcus Hook Energy Transfer facility actually began in 1901 when the Pew family wanted to get into the oil business following the discovery at Spindletop, Texas.
An original purchase of 80 acres has become an 800-acre facility now dedicated to exporting natural gas liquids extracted from western Pennsylvania.
“With industrial facilities and areas, we are really in a second act and a very successful second act at Marcus Hook,” he said. “Timing and ingenuity is really key.”
McGinn credited former Sunoco CEO Michael Hennigan with providing the facility with this chance.
McGinn said that resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars of wages earned for those in the Delaware Valley and tens of millions of dollars of tax revenue.
Right now, McGinn said Energy Transfer has a project undergoing to build and expand the ethane side of the business, resulting in hundreds of jobs for local workers.
He contrasted this to 2011 when the refinery was closed to make way for the new technology.
“What was at stake?” McGinn asked. “What were people going to do? Where were the jobs going to come from? Where was the money going to come from for places like the Chichester School District or the Borough of Marcus Hook? Were people going to have to move?
“To see where we got,” he added.
McGinn compared the potential of natural gas liquids to the discovery of American oil, which also occurred in Pennsylvania when Colonel Drake drilled 69 feet in Titusville, Pa., to extract oil from Pennsylvania ground in 1859.
McGinn said the first Marcellus drill went 6,000 feet down in 2004.
“It’s become such a key part of the state and the economy,” he noted. “The first propane ship exported from Marcus Hook was in 2012. That’s 110 years after the first crude oil came into that facility.”
Large projects associated with Energy Transfer and the Marcus Hook Industrial Complex are credited with providing high-paying jobs and providing revenue to the nearby municipalities through the taxes paid by the workers. (DAILY TIMES)
McGinn explained that this propane goes to western Europe and Asia.
Then, he spoke about ethane, a key feedstock to many items used everyday.
“In March 2016, almost 10 years ago, the first export of ethane in the history of the United States came right from Marcus Hook,” McGinn said.
According to ExxonMobil, he noted, in 2024, the worldwide demand for oil was 300 million barrels per day. McGinn said the United States itself produces between 13.5 million to 14 million barrels a day of crude oil.
He said general predictions of what the demand will be in 2050 for worldwide energy is 350 million barrels equivalent per day.
“It can’t all just come from one source,” McGinn noted. “Coming full circle, back right here to 19061 … there is that opportunity for growth.”
Bill Adams of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 654 spoke about how energy production impacts his 725 members.
Bill Adams of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 654, talks about how his members are positively impacted by energy developments. (KATHLEEN E. CAREY – DAILY TIMES)
“The amount of man hours were incredible,” he said of the first Mariner project that came into the Marcus Hook facility. “We had electricians down on the project for the better part of two years. Every one of our local members worked and we pulled in manpower from the surrounding locals.”
Mariner 1 was the refitting of an 8-inch, 350-mile pipeline to transport natural gas liquids such as ethane and methane across southern Pennsylvania to the Marcus Hook Industrial Complex, which was converted from a crude oil refinery to a storage facility for these liquids to be exported from the Delaware County dock.
Their work then pays into pension funds and apprenticeship programs and that doesn’t include the mortgages and taxes these workers pay, Adams noted.
“I believe the Mariner 2 project overall for the building trades represented 7 million man hours worked in Energy Transfer for area workers,” Adams said. “That was even bigger.”
Mariner East 2 was also a 350-mile pipeline that went from West Virginia and Ohio to the Marcus Hook Industrial Complex and connecting to onloading and offloading points throughout Pennsylvania.
George Stark, 30 years in energy industry, including Coterra Energy, emphasized the role energy plays.
“It’s not lost that it’s a local issue,” Stark said. “It’s not an issue in Susquehanna County or Pittsburgh. It’s an issue here.”
