Latest news with #processingplant
Reuters
4 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Pipeline operator ONEOK greenlights new Delaware Basin gas plant
Aug 5 (Reuters) - Midstream company ONEOK (OKE.N), opens new tab said on Tuesday it has made a final investment decision to build a new natural gas processing plant in the Delaware Basin, aiming to grow its footprint in the top U.S. shale field as gas volumes surge. The Big Horn plant will have a capacity to process 300 million cubic feet per day of natural gas and treat high-carbon dioxide gas, the company said on its post-earnings call. The facility and associated treater are expected to cost about $365 million and begin service in mid-2027.
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Proposed Watertown dairy plant would join state's success
Jul. 12—WATERTOWN — A proposed $250 million dairy processing plant comes at a time when New York's growing dairy industry is on the brink of adding a series of major projects across the state. Locally, a Texas company, Southern Dairy, is eyeing a 40-acre site on outer Massey Street in the town of Watertown to build a 300,000-square-foot dairy processing plant. The project was unveiled on Tuesday at a town Planning Board meeting. The proposed dairy processing plant would add to the billions of dollars in investment and job creation already going on in the state's dairy industry, including a 1.4-million-square-foot Chobani plant in Rome. The $1.2 billion Chobani plant will create 1,000 jobs for Central New York alone. As for the local project, Southern Dairy, which has developed six similar facilities in New Zealand, is looking at land owned by Ron Robbins, who owns the Robbins Family Farm outside Sackets Harbor. If built, the plant will create 80 high-paying jobs and hundreds of construction workers during its two-year construction. The proposed Watertown plant would use raw milk, skim milk and whey sourced from north country dairy farms to produce milk powders, whey protein concentrate and other dry dairy products such as infant formula. Using north country farmers' milk, the Southern Dairy plant would be a major boost for the north country's dairy industry and have an economic development impact for decades to come, said Jay Matteson, Jefferson County agricultural coordinator. "Anytime you bring in a dairy processing plant, it's going to have an impact on a region," he said, adding that he doesn't have any specific information about how much milk would come from north country dairies. With 65,000 agriculture jobs, the dairy industry has a $1.2 billion economic impact in Jefferson, St. Lawrence and Lewis counties. In addition to those 80 high-tech positions at the Southern Dairy plant, the region's workforce would add other jobs. According to a University of Wisconsin study, every farming job creates 1.87 jobs in the community. The Wisconsin study also found that 1.64 positions are added from having a dairy processing plant in the community. Besides Chobani, Matteson named seven other major processing plant projects now occurring or that have been completed across the state in recent years. Calling it "a lifetime event," he equates what's going on with New York's dairy industry to Micron's $100 billion project outside of Syracuse and the booming semiconductor industry. "There's never been this kind of investment than what's going on right now in the dairy industry," he said. And the growth will boost the economy in rural communities, he said. The Chobani plant will be built in the Griffiss Business and Technology Park, the site of a former Air Force base. The facility is expected to produce one billion pounds of dairy products annually and process 12 million pounds of milk daily, according to the company. With 28 product lines, the plant is slated to be operational next year. "That's going to have some impact on us," Matteson said. "It's going to be very beneficial to the north country." In 2024, Great Lakes Cheese, which has a facility in Adams, began operations at a $700 million Mozzarella cheese plant in Franklinville, Cattaraugus County, replacing a nearby facility. The plant employs 500 workers. With the Adams and Franklinville plants, the company projected to make use of about 14.4% of the state's milk production when the state announced the project back in 2022. Near Auburn, Cayuga Milk Ingredients — in collaboration with Tetra Pak, a global food processing and packaging company — is in the process of a $168 million expansion project. To be completed in phases, the 235,000-square-foot facility aims to increase production of milk powders, protein powders and fluid milk products and create 150 new jobs. Using 1.5 million pounds of milk from 22 area farmers, it started operating last month. HP Hood, with plants in central New York, plans a $26 million expansion that would increase production in a vacant building at a business park in Batavia. Matteson also mentioned that Belgioioso Cheese completed a $25 million project in Glenville, Schenectady County, which manufactures Mozzarella cheese and other Italian varieties at the 96,000-square-foot plant where 46 employees work. Byrne Dairy, the Syracuse dairy company, also is planning an expansion, he said. As the result of the industry's growth, the demand for milk will increase by seven billion pounds of milk in the state over the next two or three years, Matteson said. Marshall Weir, CEO of Jefferson County Economic Development, is confident that local dairy farms will be able to provide milk to the proposed dairy processing plant in the town of Watertown. New York milk Co-ops would work with farmers to figure out how they can provide milk to Southern Dairy for the plant, Matteson said. On Monday, the town's Planning Board heard a presentation about the project, beginning the formal approval process, which is expected to take several months. The developers plan to be back in front of a the planning board for a work session on Sept. 4 to further discuss the project. Developer Michael E. Lundy, who's a consultant working on the project, is handling the approval process, while The Lawman Group of Companies, of Sackets Harbor, is the design builder and general contractor for the project. The company is also considering about five other sites, in Vermont, Pennsylvania, Nebraska and other states, for the project. But Southern Dairy CEO Owen Mansill prefers the town of Watertown site, Lundy said. The project would be privately funded, Lundy said. On Monday, Corry Lawler, CEO of the Lawman Group, said he spent 11 days in New Zealand learning about the company's facilities there. They utilized robotics with about eight workers handling the automatics. The process would include turning fluid milk into powder products. Trucks would enter the plant and deliver milk at one of the end of the plant, where it would go through equipment to dry it, he said. A large warehouse would undergo construction first, he said. With so many workers on the construction of the plant, they would be bused on to the site for safety reasons, he said. A small cemetery in disrepair would be completely restored with landscaping and stones, Lundy said. It would be next to the plant entrance, so they "want it to look nice," he said. The plant's proximity to a CSX rail line is critical for the project in order to ship product out quickly, and is more cost effective when compared to trucking, he said. The site also has 115kV transmission lines that would give the plant the power it needs, Lawler said. The company is working with National Grid. Lundy and Lawler have been working on the project since October 2023. Lundy and Matteson declined to reveal more specific information about the project or the company, saying that they were not at liberty to discuss it. Before Monday's Planning Board meeting, Lundy, Lawler, Mansill and another company official met on June 25 with about 50 stakeholders, who would be involved in the approval process, to talk about the project and its economic development impact. The goal of the invite-only meeting, held in the Lincoln Building in Watertown, was to get everybody on board. Any delays in the approval process could jeopardize the north country landing it, Lundy said. "We need everybody to cooperate or we'll lose it," he said. He also wouldn't say how Southern Dairy became interested in the north country and the Outer Massey Street site. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
