Shell said it has made a Final Investment Decision (FID) to build a major petrochemicals complex in Pennsylvania.
The construction is expected to take up to 18 months with commercial production expected to begin early in the next decade.
The oil major said the project will bring new growth and jobs to the region, with up to 6,000 construction workers involved in building the new facility and 600 permanent employees at the site when it is completed.
The move comes on the same day Shell held its Capital Markets Day and revealed it would be divesting out of up to 10 countries in its global portfolio.
The complex is expected to use low-cost ethane from shale gas producers in the Marcellus and Utica basins to produce 1.6million tonnes of polyethylene per year.
Graham van’t Hoff, executive vice president for Royal Dutch Shell plc’s global Chemicals business, said: “Shell Chemicals has recently announced final investment decisions to expand alpha olefins production at our Geismar site in Louisiana and, with our partner CNOOC in China, to add a world-scale ethylene cracker with derivative units to our existing complex there.”