Processing Plants

Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Ethane | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Processing Plants

Marcellus/Utica Ethane Exports on the Way – from the Gulf Coast!
April 23, 2014April 23, 2014

Enterprise Products Partners, builder of the ATEX (Appalachia-to-Texas Express) ethane pipeline from Washington County, PA through Ohio and all the way to the Gulf Coast, has just announced what they plan to do with some of the ethane they’re sending to the Gulf Coast. Yes, right now it’s being sold to cracker plants along the Gulf Coast for processing into ethylene (used to make plastics), but Enterprise has just announced they will build an ethane export facility and send some of that cheap, abundant ethane to foreign destinations.

Enterprise says U.S. production capacity and use for ethane exceeds demand and it only makes sense to export some good, ole American energy to other countries. Good for them, and good for u$…
Read More “Marcellus/Utica Ethane Exports on the Way – from the Gulf Coast!”
EmKey Gathering | Energy Services | Erie County | Industrywide Issues | NGLs | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Processing Plants

Western PA/NY Pipeline Company Starts Separating NGLs for More $$
April 21, 2014April 21, 2014

Anticipating that Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling will one day come to northwestern Pennsylvania and western New York, the owner of a pipeline system that services 6,500 older vertical wells in that area has just made an upgrade. EmKey Energy has just opened a new $10 million gas processing plant east of Union City, PA where five of EmKey’s underground pipelines converge. And here is the beauty and the brilliance. That new processing plant does nothing more than separate out natural gas liquids from the incoming stream of gas–NGLs that have been there all along but weren’t economical to separate. Now the plant separates butane, propane and ethane and sells them for bigger money than they would have been sold as part of the methane stream.

According to EmKey’s founder Oivind Risberg, the $10 million upgrade is profitable and doing well. But the real gravy train will arrive when shale drilling enters the area and his pipelines hook up to the deeper Marcellus and Utica Shale. That’s when the really big payoff will happen. Brilliant! Here’s more about EmKey’s “make good money now, but boatloads of it later when shale drilling arrives” strategy…
Read More “Western PA/NY Pipeline Company Starts Separating NGLs for More $$”
Beaver County | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell

Big News from Shell PA Meetings: Beaver County WANTS a Cracker!
April 17, 2014April 17, 2014

Yesterday Shell held two meetings in Beaver County, PA to talk to area residents about their proposed plan to possibly build a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant. One session was from 11 am to 2 pm, the other from 4-7 pm, both held at the Shadow Lakes country club in Hopewell. Shell expected around 350 people to show up for the daytime session–more than 700 showed. By the end of the day, well over 1,000 people attended the two sessions. As predicted, Shell did not say they’ve decided to move forward, but they are still actively pursuing the project. From that perspective, neither event produced anything “newsworthy.”

Yet, there was big news coming from the two sessions: Attendance was twice what they expected, and the overwhelming majority of those attending support the project and want to see it built. We would go so far as to say Beaver County came out in force with open arms and rolled out the red carpet for Shell. They WANT this cracker plant, and they want it bad. Which is good news for Shell–to have such overwhelming community support…
Read More “Big News from Shell PA Meetings: Beaver County WANTS a Cracker!”
Beaver County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell

Shell Meetings Today in Beaver County, PA on Ethane Cracker Plant
April 16, 2014April 16, 2014

Shell is holding two public meetings today at the Shadow Lakes club in Hopewell (Beaver County), PA to discuss the possibility of building a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant in Monaca, PA. The meetings, according to Shell, are not an indicator that Shell has decided to move forward with the project. The meetings are, according to Shell, a way for the company to hear concerns from the people who live in the area and would potentially be affected by the plant, and for Shell to share information on where the project stands at this point and what’s ahead. It’s all about good, two-way communication.

More details about the meetings today, and a brief background on the proposed Shell ethane cracker…
Read More “Shell Meetings Today in Beaver County, PA on Ethane Cracker Plant”
Allegheny County | Energy Services | Ethane | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | NOVA Chemicals | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Statewide PA

NOVA Visits Pittsburgh, Takes About Sarnia Cracker Expansion
April 9, 2014April 9, 2014

Last December MDN brought you the news that NOVA Chemicals, which operates the Corunna ethane cracker plant in Sarnia, Ontario (Canada) plans to expand their cracker plant using more Marcellus and Utica Shale ethane (see NOVA Chemicals Plans Expansion of Corunna Cracker in Sarnia). At that time NOVA said they will expand capacity by an additional 20% gradually between 2014 and 2018.

At a special event in Pittsburgh designed to strengthen the already-strong connection between Pennsylvania and Canada, called Pop-Up Canada, NOVA vice president John Hotz provided a few more details about NOVA’s plans for the Corunna cracker plant…
Read More “NOVA Visits Pittsburgh, Takes About Sarnia Cracker Expansion”
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Media Picks Up on Report Listing $18.7B of OH Shale-Related Projects
April 8, 2014April 7, 2014

Last week MDN called attention to a report “quietly” released by the Columbus, Ohio law firm of Bricker & Eckler LLP that lists more than 100 small to large infrastructure and economic investment projects under way in Ohio, county by county, related to the shale industry (see New List of Shale-Related Infrastructure/Economic Projects in OH). We noticed that after we highlighted the report, a number of other media outlets did too (jest sayin’).

In fact on Monday, Crain’s Cleveland Business ran a big article highlighting the report and the data about the projects found in it, including the grand tally of the projects now being developed thanks to shale drilling in Ohio: $18.7 BILLION. We thought you would like to read more about the good economic news happening in Ohio, thanks to shale…
Read More “Media Picks Up on Report Listing $18.7B of OH Shale-Related Projects”
Blue Racer Midstream | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | Processing Plants | West Virginia

Blue Racer Natrium Wet Gas Processing Plant Addition Almost Ready
April 7, 2014April 7, 2014

Last September an explosion and fire at Blue Racer Midstream’s Natrium, WV natural gas processing plant closed the plant (see Explosion/Fire at Blue Racer’s Natrium, WV Processing Plant). The plant remained closed for five long months, causing some of their customers, including Rex Energy and Atlas Resources, to find alternatives to process wet gas (see Blue Racer’s Natrium Plant to Remain Offline Until Jan 2014).

It certainly was a happy day in January when the facility came back online, with repaired and new equipment, and a new alarm system for the nearby community. Always in the cards was an expansion of the processing capacity at the Natrium facility–doubling the ability to process and separate wet gas from 200 million cubic feet per day to 400 Mmcf/d. Blue Racer, when announcing the re-opening of the original plant in January, also announced they already have four new customers lined up for the extra/new capacity (see Blue Racer: Natrium Plant Back Online, New Customers, Adds Barging). Good news for those new customers–the extra capacity is about to go online…
Read More “Blue Racer Natrium Wet Gas Processing Plant Addition Almost Ready”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Berks County | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants

0.0024 of Berks County Population Opposes New $1B GTL Plant
April 7, 2014April 7, 2014

Over the past several years MDN has told you about a number of gas-to-liquids (GTL) projects trying to get underway in the Marcellus and Utica Shale region. GTL converts cheap, abundant natural gas into motor oils and diesel fuel. Kind of like spinning gold from hay. One of those projects is a proposal by Canadian company EmberClear Corp. that wants to build such a plant in Berks County, PA–near Philadelphia. EmberClear proposes to spend upward of an eye-popping $1 billion to build a plant that will create 100 permanent jobs when it’s completed–to say nothing of the hundreds of temporary jobs needed to build it (see Another New Gas-to-Liquids Plant Coming in PA – Near Philly).

As soon as you announce such a project, wacko anti-drillers pop up (like a game of Whack-a-Mole) to oppose it. Such a group has formed in Berks County. Called the South Heidelberg Community Association, the group has gotten 1,000 people to sign a petition against this $1 billion economic miracle that would exist in their area. Let’s see, 1,000 people of the Berks County population of 411,442–or 2/10ths of one percent. Will this infinitesimally small number of people ruin it for everyone?…
Read More “0.0024 of Berks County Population Opposes New $1B GTL Plant”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Supply Chain

MarkWest Orders 70 Cat Gas Compressor Engines for Marcellus/Utica
April 3, 2014April 3, 2014

Caterpillar has scored one of the largest orders it has ever seen for its Cat® G3600 engines from MarkWest Energy–for use in the Marcellus and Utica Shale region. Yesterday Caterpillar Oil & Gas announced MarkWest has ordered 70 G3600 engines, which will be built in Cat’s Lafayette, IN plant. The engines are powered by natural gas and will be used in MarkWest compressor stations and processing plants.

This order, representing millions of dollars and numerous jobs, is just one more example of how shale drilling benefits everyone across the country–not just landowners and the drilling industry. Below is the press release from Caterpillar with more details, including other vendors that will be involved in assembling these “compression packages” for MarkWest, along with a news report from Lafayette, excited to have this huge new order…
Read More “MarkWest Orders 70 Cat Gas Compressor Engines for Marcellus/Utica”
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Statewide OH | Supply Chain | Utica Shale

New List of Shale-Related Infrastructure/Economic Projects in OH
April 1, 2014April 1, 2014

Researchers with the Ohio energy law firm of Bricker & Eckler LLP have done us all a huge favor. They have assembled a really cool list infrastructure and business projects county by county in Ohio that are known or rumored–all related to the Utica/Marcellus Shale industry. The list (full copy embedded below) lists the county where the project is occurring, the company(s) involved, a brief description of the project and if known, the projected amount of investment.

Workers looking for jobs, businesses that want to get a piece of the action (supply chain), competitors and more will want to review this awesome list. Yes, it does bear a passing resemblance to our own list of infrastructure projects in Vol. 2 of the Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook. Some of the same projects are listed. However, Bricker & Eckler’s list is specific to Ohio and includes many smaller non-pipeline related projects. Kudos to them for producing a great report…
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Bradford County | Economic Impact | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants

Rural PA County Hopes NatGas Electric Plant Attracts Businesses
March 31, 2014March 31, 2014

Here’s a new twist: Economic development leaders in Bradford County, PA are hoping a local natural gas-fired electrical generating plant now being built will be a magnet that attracts petrochemical businesses to the area. We’ve known for some time (since last year) that Moxie Liberty, which later sold the rights to Panda Liberty, would build a new electrical generating plant near Wyalusing (Bradford County), PA (see Moxie Liberty Sells PA Electric Plant Project to Panda Power). The Panda Liberty plant is now under construction with large cranes and more than 100 workers in and around the site.

Local economic development leaders are hoping the Panda Liberty plant, which will use locally mined Marcellus gas, will catch the attention of petrochemical manufacturers of waxes, lubricants and other products that use natural gas as an ingredient. Already inquiries from such “downstream” businesses have been coming in–a very good sign indeed…
Read More “Rural PA County Hopes NatGas Electric Plant Attracts Businesses”
Economic Impact | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Odebrecht | Processing Plants | Statewide WV | West Virginia | Wood County

WV Commerce Sec Burdette Praises Odebrecht/Antero, Warns Drillers
March 28, 2014March 28, 2014

Aside from WV Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, no one in West Virginia has been more dedicated, more focused and more committed to finding an ethane cracker plant for the state than WV Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette. MDN has stories going back years that mention Burdette and his quest for a cracker (just one example: WV’s Burdette Still in Hunt for Ethane Cracker Plant). We think it’s a fair statement to say without Burdette, the Odebrecht cracker plant project would not have happened. Our hat is off to Keith and the marvelous work he’s done for the state.

Yesterday Keith delivered a rousing speech at the Marcellus to Manufacturing Ethane Development Conference at the Charleston Civic Center. We have a transcript of his speech below. In it, Keith acknowledges the contributions of Odebrecht’s David Peebles in making this project happen. He also praises Antero Resources for their bold and brave commitment to providing half of the ethane for the new cracker plant. Finally, Keith sounds a word of warning to other drillers that are signing agreements to ship ethane out of the northeast region. He believes they may want to reconsider. The northeast has enough ethane for “a dozen crackers” if so much of it wasn’t heading to the Gulf Coast or Canada via pipeline…
Read More “WV Commerce Sec Burdette Praises Odebrecht/Antero, Warns Drillers”
Antero Resources | Braskem | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Odebrecht | Processing Plants | Statewide WV | West Virginia | Wood County

Antero to Provide 50% Ethane Needed at Parkersburg Cracker Plant
March 27, 2014March 27, 2014

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).

It was just Monday of last week that MDN observed that the Odebrect cracker plant just “feels” like it’s going to happen (see Odebrecht’s WV Ethane Cracker has The Big Mo–Momentum). Yesterday’s Antero announcement is more evidence of that. Below is the official Antero announcement about their ethane contribution to the proposed new cracker, along with a report of who said what about the deal at yesterday’s Charleston conference…
Read More “Antero to Provide 50% Ethane Needed at Parkersburg Cracker Plant”
Beaver County | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell | Statewide PA

County Officials Meet with Shell on PA Cracker, Come Away Hopeful
March 27, 2014March 27, 2014

Seems like it’s “cracker day” at MDN. Long before Odebrecht announced their potential ethane cracker plant for Parkersburg, WV, Shell announced plans to build a cracker in Pennsylvania. In fact it was exactly two years ago this month that Shell announced the location would be Monaca (Beaver County), PA (see Shell Announces Location of Ethane Cracker Plant). PA state legislators eventually voted on a package of significant tax breaks for the proposed new plant (see PA Legislature Reaches Deal on Tax Credit for Cracker Plant). However, since that time, it seems like the PA cracker deal has cycled through highs and lows as to whether it would actually get built (see PA Ethane Cracker – On Again, Off Again…Now On Again?).

More recently MDN told you the pendulum had swung back to the pessimistic side (see Shell’s Shale Pessimism Signals Worry for Some re PA Cracker). But what’s this? Last week some 30 Beaver County officials met with Shell about the proposed ethane cracker plant and left that meeting feeling “hopeful”–which is a good sign. Shell told the officials about moving forward with plans to move a portion of a local roadway, relocate power lines and other big-ticket projects that Shell would not be spending money on unless there is serious interest in moving forward. Here’s more from last week’s hopeful meeting between Shell and Beaver County officials…
Read More “County Officials Meet with Shell on PA Cracker, Come Away Hopeful”
Beaver County | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell

Cracker Plant Talk Spurs Economic Growth in Beaver County, PA
March 26, 2014March 26, 2014

Over the past couple of years the prospects for an ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, PA have swung from wild optimism to wild pessimism and everything in between. Most recently the pendulum has once again tilted negative (see Shell’s Shale Pessimism Signals Worry for Some re PA Cracker). But don’t talk negative to the businesses setting up shop and expanding in Beaver County. The mere talk that it’s possible Shell will build the $2-$3 billion ethane cracker in Monaca has caused a significant uptick in the local economy. One Realtor has said for businesses looking to get a piece of the coming economic pie–you’re already late! Many have already grabbed up space and it’s increasingly difficult to find commercial real estate in the county.

Here is the story of the economic boom already under way in Beaver County just from talk–talk that Shell may build a cracker plant there…
Read More “Cracker Plant Talk Spurs Economic Growth in Beaver County, PA”
Economic Impact | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Processing Plants | Research | Statewide WV | West Virginia | Wood County

Report: Coming Economic Miracle in WV from Ethane Cracker Plant
March 24, 2014March 24, 2014

In February MDN told you about a newly released research report from Tom Witt, economist and former director of West Virginia University’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research and professor emeritus at WVU. Witt, now a private consultant, took a close look at realistic numbers for how many jobs and how much money the proposed Odebrecht ethane cracker and associated petrochemical plants will generate for WV and the region (see Economist Releases Report on WV Cracker Plant’s Economic Impact). The numbers are truly astonishing.

In February we could not get our hands a copy of the study, which is titled “Building Value from Shale Gas: The Promise of Expanding Petrochemicals in West Virginia.” We now have a full copy and have embedded it below. We also have an editorial written by Witt and published a few days ago describing the study and his take on the coming economic miracle in WV from Odebrecht’s ethane cracker plant…
Read More “Report: Coming Economic Miracle in WV from Ethane Cracker Plant”