Processing Plants | Marcellus Drilling News

Caiman Energy Investing $1.3B in Midstream Facilities in WV

January 20, 2012January 20, 2012

Caiman Energy plans to bring its total investment in natural gas processing (“midstream”) facilities in Marshall County, WV to $1.3 billion by the end of 2014. At midstream processing plants like the ones operated by Caiman, raw natural gas is processed to separate out methane from other components like ethane, propane, butane and pentane, or “natural gas liquids.” The liquids are sent to another facility for fractionation, to separate them from one another. Ethane then goes to a cracker plant where it is “cracked” or transformed into ethylene, used for making plastics.

Caiman is expanding its current processing facilities and building a new fractionation facility in Marshall County and spending nearly as much on their projects ($1.3 billion) as the much anticipated cracker plant that will be built by Shell somewhere in the Marcellus Shale region ($1.5-$2.0 billion).

Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Processing Plants | Shell

New Timeline for Shell Cracker Plant Announcement

January 19, 2012January 19, 2012

MDN has extensively covered Shell’s plan to build a $1.5-$2.0 billion ethane cracker plant somewhere in the Marcellus region (see MDN’s previous coverage here). A cracker plant “cracks” ethane, a component of raw natural gas, into ethylene, a raw material used to manufacture plastics. West Virginia has been perhaps the most vocal and energetic of prospective locations in their efforts to attract Shell’s investment inside their borders. But Ohio and Pennsylvania are also making a serious effort to attract it as well.

Until now, the word was that Shell would likely make their announcement in mid- to late January. The timeline has apparently changed to be mid- to late February, according to West Virginia officials who remain jazzed about their possibilities in winning the cracker plant sweepstakes.

Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Processing Plants | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Gov. Tomblin Proposes 25-Year Tax Break for Cracker Plant

January 17, 2012March 24, 2012

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has sent proposed new legislation to lawmakers asking for a 25-year break from business property taxes for any company investing at least $2 billion to build an ethane cracker plant in the state. There is a bidding war going on among West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania to attract the plant, a facility that processes ethane from shale gas drilling into ethylene, a raw material used to make plastics.

Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Statewide PA

The Two Faces of Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA) on Shale Drilling

January 16, 2012January 16, 2012

hypocrite U.S. Sen. Robert Casey (Democrat, Pennsylvania) has been an outspoken critic of fracking and Marcellus shale gas drilling. He introduced and is lead sponsor of legislation in the Senate called the FRAC Act—Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals (see this MDN story). The title sounds nice with words like “responsibility” and “awareness” in it, but in reality the FRAC Act is a massive power transfer, stripping the right to regulate oil and gas drilling from the individual states and handing it over to the Environmental Protection Agency in the federal government. It’s bad legislation that would gut oil and gas drilling in the United States.

Southern NJ Refinery May Reopen Thanks to Shale Fracking

January 6, 2012January 6, 2012

A closed refinery in West Deptford Township (Gloucester County), NJ may soon reopen thanks to hydraulic fracturing. The refinery, owned by Sunoco, is looking at two possibilities: Refine oil from the Bakken Shale region of North Dakota; or convert the refinery into a processing plant to move and store ethane from the Marcellus Shale region.

Ohio Offers Shell Cracker Plant $1.4B in Tax Incentives

January 2, 2012January 2, 2012

moving mountains Competition to attract an ethane cracker plant is heating up. West Virginia has made no bones that they intend to be the winners of the investment that will be made to build an ethane cracker plant to be built by Shell. The plant will cost upward of $2 billion and will create thousands of jobs to build the plant, operate the plant, and just as importantly, in the industries that will locate near the plant once it’s operational. It’s an economic jackpot worth $5 billion or more, and those who are in the game to attract it are in it to win.

$500M NG Processing Plant in Marshall County, WV Under Way

December 19, 2011December 19, 2011

A $500 million natural gas processing plant is currently being built by Dominion Transmission along the Ohio River in Marshall County, WV. When it’s done, it will have a 400 million cubic feet per day capacity. Chesapeake Energy has committed to processing 100 million cubic feet per day at the facility. The new plant means jobs and an economic boost for West Virginia’s northern panhandle.

MarkWest Pays $1.8B to Buy Out JV Partner in Liberty Midstream

December 13, 2011December 13, 2011

MarkWest Energy announced yesterday it will pay $1 billion in cash and 19.95 million new Class B MarkWest units (worth an estimated $750 million to $850 million) to buy out joint venture partner Energy and Minerals Group’s (EMG) 49 percent interest in MarkWest Liberty Midstream. The Liberty Midstream joint venture was formed in May 2009 to focus on construction and operation of midstream services in support of Marcellus shale gas production, including pipelines to gather natural gas, facilities to process it, and transportation to get it to market.

Although MarkWest is buying out EMG’s interest in the Liberty joint venture, the two companies will create a new Utica Shale midstream joint venture in eastern Ohio in 2012 as part of the deal.

Magnum Hunter & MarkWest Do Deal to Process WV Shale Gas

October 6, 2011October 6, 2011

Pipeline company Magnum Hunter Resources has signed a deal with natural gas processor MarkWest Liberty to deliver and process “liquids-rich” Marcellus Shale gas from northwest West Virginia. As part of the deal, a Magnum Hunter subsidiary (Eureka Hunter) is selling an under-construction gas processing plant to MarkWest. What it all means is that Magnum Hunter and MarkWest are joining forces to handle a large capacity of shale gas that needs processing in northwest WV.