US President Donald Trump is not one for letting a chance to do a bit of campaigning slip by and a recent trip to an under-construction Shell petrochemicals plant proved just the ticket in the run up to a shot at re-election next year.

“This would have never happened without me and us,” Trump told an estimated crowd of 5000 at the Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex in Monaca, Beaver County on Tuesday, despite Shell sanctioning the development years before he came to office.

Trump told the assembled workers that the massive construction project was only made possible “by clean, affordable, all-American natural gas — powerful, clean natural gas”.

The cracker plant, which has more than 5000 workers in the construction phases, will transform natural gas into plastic pellets.

“This facility will transform abundant natural gas — and we have a lot of it — fracked from Pennsylvania wells, which they never would have allowed you to take if I hadn’t become president,” Trump said.

In a characteristically meandering speech, Trump added: “Unlike those big windmills that destroy everybody’s property values, kill all the birds... And then all of a sudden it stops — the wind and the televisions go off, and your wives and husbands say: ‘Darling, I want to watch Donald Trump on television tonight, but the wind’s stopped blowing and I can’t watch (as) there’s no electricity in the house, darling.’ Nah, we love natural gas.”

Trump was joined at the plant by Energy Secretary Rick Perry, EPA chief Andrew Wheeler, Shell US country chair and president of Shell Oil Company Gretchen Watkins and Shell chairman Charles Holliday.

Trump said having Holliday on site was “a big deal” before losing his bearings somewhat.

“I don’t know where the hell he comes from. Where are you based? It’s not in this country,” he said of the Anglo-Dutch supermajor’s chairman.

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Trump gets cracking at Shell US plant