MarkWest Expands Its Utica Infrastructure
DENVER -- Buoyed by strong production reports from its customers in southeastern Ohio, MarkWest Utica EMG LLC, a joint venture between MarkWest Energy Partners L.P. and the Energy and Minerals Group, plans to expand its midstream infrastructure in the eastern Ohio portion of the Utica shale play, the company reports.
The expansion calls for adding another 200 million cubic feet of processing capacity at MarkWest Utica's Seneca processing complex in Noble County.
"We are very excited to be developing premier midstream solutions in the southern core of the Utica shale for successful and prove operators such as Antero and Gulfport," said Frank Semple, MarkWest chairman, president and CEO, in a prepared statement. "Together with our joint venture partner EMG, we are committed to providing our producer customers with fully integrated midstream infrastructure in one of America's most exciting emerging resource plays.
Seneca's third plant is slated for operation early in the second quarter of next year.
The first two plants of the Seneca complex are expected to begin operations during the fourth quarter and will support the production of rich gases from producers such as Antero Resources, Gulfport Energy Corp., Consol Energy Corp., Rex Energy and PDC Energy, among others.
Once the third plant is added, the complex will be able to process 600 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, the company said.
MarkWest recently started operations at its cryogenic plant in Cadiz, Ohio, in Harrison County, as part of a massive processing complex it's constructing there. The Cadiz cryogenic plant currently has 185 million cubic feet per day of processing capacity, which includes a 60 million cubic feet per day interim refrigeration plant. Once the second plant is completed, capacity would increase to 325 million cubic feet per day.
The Cadiz project is anchored by supply from recent wells put into production by Gulfport, MarkWest reported, which is reporting strong results from wells its developed in the region. A rich-gas header would connect the Cadiz and the Seneca complexes.
In just more than a year, MarkWest Utica EMG has executed agreements with seven producers developing acreage in the southern core of the Utica shale.
By 2014, MarkWest Utica's integrated midstream system will consist of 300,000 miles of gathering pipelines, five processing complexes that total nearly one billion cubic feet of natural-gas processing capacity per day and 100,000 barrels of per day of fractionation capacity.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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