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MarkWest Brings More Processing Plants Online
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DENVER -- MarkWest Energy Partners updated its operations in the Marcellus and Utica shale plays Friday, reporting that it now has 21 major processing and factionation projects under construction.
These projects are occurring at eight large-scale complexes in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia and are expected to increase the partnership’s total processing capacity to over 4 billion cubic feet (Bcf/d) and total fractionation capacity to nearly 300,000 barrels per day (Bbl/d) by the end of 2014, the company said.
In the Utica Shale, MarkWest Utica EMG LLC, a joint venture between MarkWest and The Energy and Minerals Group, has begun operations of its first cryogenic processing plant at the Seneca complex in Noble County, Ohio. The 200 million cubic feet per day Seneca I plant will be followed by a second plant with the same capacity by year-end, the company said, and a third plant by the second quarter.
The Seneca complex is MarkWest Utica EMG’s second major processing complex in the core area of the rich-gas Utica Shale. By the end of 2014, total processing capacity in Ohio will reach almost 1 billion cubic feet per day, the company said.
The Seneca complex is supported by long-term, fee-based contracts with several key producers. Antero Resources Corp. will anchor the complex and the facilities will also play a key role in the rich-gas development of Gulfport Energy Corp., Rex Energy Corp., PDC Energy Inc., Consol Energy Inc. and others, the company said.
The Seneca complex is connected to MarkWest Utica EMG’s Cadiz complex in Harrison County, Ohio by a high-pressure rich-gas header system. By connecting these large-scale processing facilities, MarkWest Utica EMG provides producer customers with the largest integrated cryogenic gas-processing infrastructure in the Utica Shale, the company said.
In the Marcellus, MarkWest has begun operations of Majorsville V, a 200 million cubic feet per day plant at the Majorsville complex in Marshall County, W.Va. The new plant increases the total processing capacity at the complex to 670 million cubic feet per day. MarkWest said it expects to complete an additional 200 MMcf/d plant during the first quarter and will bring online a sixth plant in early 2016. Upon completion of these facilities, the Majorsville complex will have more than one billion cubic feet per day of capacity.
Over the next month, MarkWest will also bring online its second large scale de-ethanizer in the Marcellus Shale at the Majorsville complex. The new facility will double the partnership’s purity ethane fractionation capacity to 78,000 Bbl/d and provide producer customers’ with the ability to meet residue gas quality specifications and downstream ethane pipeline commitments. Ethane produced at the new Majorsville fractionation facility will initially be delivered into the Mariner West pipeline and, in the future, to the ATEX and Mariner East pipeline projects, the company said.
SOURCE: Mark West Energy Partners.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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