Work on New Ethane Pipeline to Gulf Coast Now Underway in OH

Survey work in central Ohio has already begun on a new ethane pipeline to be built by Enterprise Products Partners. The pipeline, which was recently announced (see this MDN story), will reach from the Marcellus and Utica Shale region in Washington County, PA all the way to Cape Girardeau, MO where it will connect with an existing pipeline to the Gulf Coast. Surveyors for the new pipeline have already turned up in Fairfield County, OH.

"I was pretty surprised when a couple of surveyors were on the property. They just showed up one day and wanted to go on the property to survey it," said Heath Harner, who owns property in the path of the proposed pipeline. "I don’t think anyone wants a pipeline going through their property, but I already have one nearby."

The pipeline would come into Fairfield County northwest of Millersport and follow the old Texas Eastern right-of-way. Expected to have an initial capacity of 125,000 barrels of ethane per day, the pipeline then would go just east of Baltimore and down to northern Lancaster, where it head west through Greenfield and Bloom Townships and into Pickaway County.

The diameter and the cost of the pipeline hasn’t been released, Enterprise Products spokesman Rick Rainey said.

"We also haven’t set a date for when construction would begin," Rainey said. "We’ve got a lot of work to do before that."

The pipeline will go through 12 other counties in Ohio: Butler, Clinton, Coshocton, Fayette, Green, Harrison, Jefferson, Licking, Muskingum, Pickaway, Tuscarawas and Warren.*

*Lancaster Eagle-Gazette (Nov 27, 2011) – Fairfield County, landowners prep for pipeline