Wednesday, August 27, 2014DENVER -- MarkWest Energy Partners LP plans to undertake a major expansion at its Keystone processing complex in Butler County, Pa. to accommodate new business recently secured with Rex Energy Corp. and EdgeMarc Energy.
The expansion consists of building new midstream infrastructure with the construction of Bluestone III and Bluestone IV, two new plants that will have the capacity to process 200 million cubic feet of natural gas per day each.
MarkWest said the plants would begin operations during the fourth quarter of 2015 and the second quarter of 2016 respectively.
The project entails the construction of 40,000 barrels per day of de-ethanization capacity and more than 20,000 barrels per day of additional propane and heavier natural gas fractionation capacity.
The expansion is in response to continued rich-gas production from the Marcellus and Upper Devonian shale plays, the company said.
MarkWest's Keystone operation includes the Bluestone processing and fractionation complex and the Sarsen processing facility. Combined, the complex has the ability to process 210 million cubic feet of natural gas per day and 26,500 barrels of fractionation capacity per day. The partners recently finished a 32-mile purity ethane pipeline connecting the Bluestone facility to Sunoco's Mariner West pipeline.
“Our expansion of the Keystone complex is very strategic to producer activity in Beaver, Butler and surrounding counties and we are very excited to continue building our strong relationship with Rex and begin supporting EdgeMarc,” stated Frank Semple, CEO of MarkWest. “Since our acquisition of the Keystone assets over two years ago, volumes continue to increase significantly and we are leading the development of full-service midstream services in the highly prospective rich-gas areas of the northwest Marcellus.”
Earlier this month, State College-based Rex Energy announced that it had acquired 208,000 leasehold acres in its Butler Operating Area from SWEPI LP, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell. The deal includes acreage in Butler, Beaver, Armstrong, Lawrence, Venango and Mercer counties in Pennsylvania, and Mahoning and Trumbull counties in Ohio.
Bluestone III would bring Rex Energy's total priority processing capacity to 280 million cubic feet per day, and Rex has secured incremental processing capacity in excess of that number, the company said. The Bluestone IV plant would add another 125 million cubic feet of processing for Rex, increasing total capacity for that company to 405 million cubic feet per day.
"The recently announced Shell transaction will significantly expand our Butler Operated Area, and we are excited to partner with MarkWest to support our growth with this increased processing and fractionation capacity," said Tom Stabley, CEO of Rex Energy. "These agreements firmly position us to execute our development plans for both our legacy acreage and the new Shell acreage in the Butler Operated Area. Looking forward, having secured the right to additional capacity in future expansions provides a strong foundation for our long-term development plans in the region."