Shell Nixes Gulf Project

Shell has pulled the plug on a planned gas-to-liquids project in Louisiana. The plant would have cost more than $12.5 billion and made 140,000 barrels per day of fuels and chemical feedstocks from natural gas. The company says the potential for escalating project costs as well as uncertainty over the long-term differential between oil and natural gas prices tipped the scales against it. The cancellation may increase the chances that Shell will give the go-ahead for its proposed ethylene cracker complex in Monaca, Pa. In October, CEO Peter Voser said Shell wouldn’t take on the GTL project, the ethylene cracker, and a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal all at once. Pennsylvania Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D) wrote a letter urging Shell to move forward in Monaca now.