What the Shell Cracker Plant Looks Like: The Visible and Invisible

How residents of Beaver County will experience the new Shell petrochemical complex in Potter Township depends on a lot of things. The time of day. The particular equipment that’s churning or not churning inside the fenceline of the sprawling industrial site that spans nearly 400 acres on the Ohio River. Whether the trains that will carry plastic pellets to customers are running. Shell, a Dutch energy and petrochemicals giant, built the complex in Beaver County because it sits on top of one of the largest reserves of natural gas in the world, the Marcellus and Utica shales.