MarkWest, Antero Announce Midstream Deal for Utica
DENVER – MarkWest Utica EMG LLC -- a joint venture of MarkWest Energy Partners L.P. and the Energy and Minerals Group, or EMG -- announced Tuesday that it's signed an agreement with Antero Resources to develop midstream infrastructure in the Utica shale in eastern Ohio.
Under the agreement, Antero will ship natural-gas liquids from this portion of Ohio to a processor slated for Noble County. Antero holds about 60,000 acres in leases under contract in eastern Ohio that are expected to yield rich gas and condensate in the Utica shale.
Antero is running one drilling rig in the Utica and plans to add a second in the second quarter of 2013. The company is constructing gathering pipelines that would transfer liquids-rich gas from its wells to the processor in Noble County.
"We are excited to extend our strong partnership with Antero Resources and continue the development of leading midstream infrastructure in the heart of the Utica shale," said Frank Semple, MarkWest chairman, president and CEO.
Antero Chairman and CEO Paul Rady said that the rich condensate in the Utica play complements the company's activity in the Marcellus shale in nearby western Pennsylvania.
Initially, MarkWest will bring online a 45 million cubic feet refrigeration gas processing plant at its Seneca complex, expected to be completed during the second quarter of 2013.
That project will serve as an interim processor and would be followed by the construction of Seneca I, a cryogenic gas-processing complex expected to begin operations by the third quarter of 2013.
The agreement also calls for the construction of another cryogenic facility, Seneca II, which is scheduled to come online by the end of next year.
In addition to its Seneca processing complex, MarkWest Utica is constructing an NGL gathering system at its processing complex in Cadiz, Ohio, and a new fractionation and marketing complex. Both are in Harrison County, Ohio.
The Cadiz processing complex will produce purity ethane and will be delivered into the ATEX ethane pipeline. The propane and heavier natural gas liquids will then flow via pipeline to the Harrison County fractionator for further separation into valuable purity products.
Together these plants will represent the largest fractionation and marketing complex in the Utica shale, providing a capacity of 100,000 barrels per day with an expected completion date of first quarter 2014.
Before the completion of the fractionation complex in Harrison County and associated pipeline infrastructure, Antero NGLs produced at the Seneca complex may be transported to either MarkWest’s Houston, Pa., fractionation and marketing complex or its Siloam fractionator in South Shore, Ky.
The Harrison County fractionation complex will be connected through an expansion of MarkWest’s Marcellus natural-gas liquids gathering system to its Houston, Pa., complex, the largest fractionation and marketing complex in the Marcellus shale. The Houston and Harrison County complexes will provide tremendous operating flexibility and reliability as well as access to several markets.
MarkWest Liberty Midstream, L.L.C. and MarkWest Utica will have joint ownership of the Harrison County fractionation complex. By the end of 2014, MarkWest will be able to provide its producer customers with nearly 275,000 barrels per day and extensive market access to all of the planned ethane and propane pipeline projects in the Marcellus and Utica shale plays, the company reported.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.