Marcellus Shale Gas Coming to Scranton/W-B Customers

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UGI Utilities, a regional gas and electric utility provider with offices in Reading and Wilkes-Barre, wants to be the first utility in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area to offer their customers natural gas exclusively from the Marcellus Shale. How? UGI’s subsidiary, UGI Energy Services, announced last fall they would spend $150 million to extend the Auburn Gathering Line into Luzerne County. The Auburn pipeline will bring natural gas from wells in Wyoming and Susquehanna counties to Luzerne where UGI has operations and offices.

As part of the extension project, on April 7 UGI made application with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to build a compressor station in West Wyoming, a small borough in Luzerne County:

UGI Energy Services Inc. is making plans for a natural gas compressor station in West Wyoming as part of a project to bring natural gas from wells in one part of northeast Pennsylvania to customers in another.

The West Wyoming station is part of UGI Energy’s extension to the Auburn natural gas pipeline that will bring natural gas from wells in Wyoming and Susquehanna counties to Luzerne County.

Its related company, UGI Utilities, plans to make the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area the first region in Pennsylvania to provide its customers with gas exclusively from the Marcellus Shale.

Compressor stations pressurize natural gas to help transport it through the pipelines. Because of engine exhaust and unintentional emissions of gas, the stations require air quality permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The April 7 edition of the Pennsylvania Bulletin notes that the public has 30 days to comment or request a public hearing from DEP, through the agency’s Wilkes-Barre office. The comment period ends Monday.*

West Wyoming council has informed Luzerne County it plans to hold a zoning hearing for the new compressor plant.

*Wilkes-Barre The Citizens’ Voice (May 4, 2012) – Gas compressor station planned in West Wyoming

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