Antero Signs Deal to Export Marcellus/Utica Ethane to Sweden
Borealis AG, an Austrian petrochemical company (majority-owned by International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) of Abu Dhabi) announced yesterday that it has signed a deal with Marcellus and Utica Shale powerhouse driller Antero Resources to buy some of Antero’s Utica/Marcellus ethane. The ethane will be pipelined to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia via the Sunoco Logistics Mariner East Pipeline. That’s if Sunoco can get the Mariner East Pipeline operating, given the current legal entanglements (see Setback for Mariner East NGL Pipe – Judges Say Not Public Utility). From Philly, the ethane will be loaded on container ships and sent to a Borealis ethane cracker plant in Stenungsund, Sweden…
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All’s we can say is “WOW!” Last Friday the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) signed another (new) lease with Antero Resources to lease more than 6,300 acres in and around Piedmont Lake, in Guernsey, Harrison and Belmont counties in Ohio. The land is in prime Utica Shale territory and Antero must have wanted it bad, because they paid a $15,000 per acre signing bonus. Plus 20% in royalties for anything produced from the land. That is, by far, the largest bonus payment we have ever heard of in the Marcellus and Utica region.
The ethane cracker plant planned for Parkersburg (Wood County), WV, to be built by Odebrecht and operated by Odebrecht subsidiary Braskem America, took another giant step closer to reality yesterday. Powerhouse Marcellus/Utica driller Antero Resources announced they will provide 30,000 barrels per day of ethane for the proposed new plant when/if it gets built. That’s half of what the plant needs to operate. Antero Resources CEO Paul Rady was joined by Odebrecht VP of business development David Peebles on stage at the Marcellus to Manufacturing Ethane Development Conference at the Charleston Civic Center for the big announcement yesterday. WV Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin took to the stage to crow about the deal too (he’s earned the right).