Dominion Resources has selected CB&I-Lummus, which is a nonunion contractor from Texas, to build the $500 million natural gas processing plant in Marshall County. The news comes as a blow to local union construction workers and contractors who need the jobs such a project will create, although some local crafts may get work through sub-contractors. According to Tom Gray, president of the Upper Ohio Valley Building Trades Council, “How much of their workforce will come from Texas and beyond we can only guess”.

 

The plant will be located next to the PPG plant at Natrium and will take natural gas to separate out the other chemicals, like ethane, propane and butane. Called a fractionation plant, it will be a key facility to allowing more Marcellus shale drilling. The Marcellus gas in Northern WV and Southwest PA is called “wet gas” meaning it has perhaps 10% more valuable, high-BTU components. This wet gas can’t be put directly into a pipeline because it burns too hot and ruins gas furnaces and turbines in gas user facilities.

 

CB&I  is one of the world large engineering, procurement and construction companies and a major process technology licensor. With about 13,000 employees worldwide, CB&I offers a full scope of services, from conceptual design and technology licensing, through engineering, procurement, fabrication and construction, to final commissioning of new facilities. The company originated in 1889 as the Chicago Bridge & Iron company.

 

In 2007, CB&I acquired Lummus Global, a leading provider of process technologies used in the oil & gas and petrochemical industries. Lummus has expertise in ethylene and olefins technologies, having licensed approximately 40 percent of all such projects worldwide over the last decade, as well as for projects involving hydrocracking. With approximately 3,000 employees, Lummus Global has 70 proprietary technologies, more than 1,500 patents and patent applications.