MarkWest to Build 3rd Plant at Cadiz Processing Complex
DENVER- MarkWest Energy Partners plans to add a third cryogenic plant to its Cadiz, Ohio, complex in Harrison County to process the high volumes of natural-gas liquids extracted from the Utica shale, the company announced today.
The new plant is expected to come online during the first quarter of 2015 and will increase processing capacity at the Cadiz site to 525 million cubic feet per day.
MarkWest's Cadiz complex, a partnership between MarkWest and the Energy & Minerals Group, or EMG, is now capable of processing 125 million cubic feet per day through its initial plant. A second plant is scheduled to go online in September, which will add 200 million cubic feet of capacity to the complex.
The Cadiz plants are used to separate dry gas such as methane from natural-gas liquids. Once the two are separated, the NGLs are transported to a fractionation complex in Hopedale where they are processed into separate products such as butane, ethane and propane.
In June, the partnership announced that it would expand its Hopedale fractionation plant, also in Harrison County, and double its propane and heavy fractionation capacity to 120,000 barrels per day. In July, MarkWest Utica EMG announced it had completed its Seneca III processing plant in Noble County, Ohio, to accommodate anchor producers such as Antero Resources. The Seneca plant is capable of processing 200 million cubic feet of gas per day.
The company says has 19 major processing facilities under construction across the country.
MarkWest provided the Utica update as part of its second quarter financials released today.
The midstream company reported it realized $161 million in distributor cash flow to unitholders for the quarter ended June 30. It earned $310 million for the first six months of 2014.
Operating income for the quarter stood at $220.1 million, an increase of $42.6 million compared to the same period in 2013. The increase is attributed to higher processing volumes, which grew 53% during the second quarter 2014 versus the same period in 2013. This boost is primarily because of increased processing in the Utica shale, the company reported.
SOURCE: MarkWest Energy Partners.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
CLICK HERE to subscribe to our twice-monthly print edition and to our free daily email headlines.