MarkWest’s Sherwood Complex in Doddridge County is Huge & Expanding

by S. Tom Bond on April 15, 2019

This facility is on US Route 50 east of West Union

MarkWest’s Sherwood Complex in Doddridge County, WV, plans further capacity expansion in 2019

From an Article by Charles Young, WV News, 4/13/2019

WEST UNION — The operators of the MarkWest Sherwood Complex in Doddridge County plan to further expand the facility’s capacity this year.

Randall Eastham, facility manager of the Sherwood Complex, said it has 2.2 billion standard cubic feet per day of processing capacity, making it the largest gas-processing facility in the nation.

“We plan to expand it by another 400 million cubic feet per day this year,” he said. “Gas processing removes the heavier and more valuable hydrocarbon components of natural gas, which are extracted as a mixed natural gas liquids (NGL) stream, which includes ethane, propane, butane and natural gasoline.”

Liquid natural gas has multiple commercial applications, Eastham said. “They are used as inputs for petrochemical plants, burned for space heating and cooking and blended into vehicle fuel,” he said. “In addition, Sherwood has a 60,000-barrel per day de-ethanization plant, which removes ethane from the other NGLs. We plan to expand this de-ethanization capacity by 20,000 barrels per day this year.”

MarkWest is a wholly owned subsidiary of MPLX. The Sherwood Complex first began operations in October 2012, according to Jamal Kheiry, communications manager for Marathon Petroleum Corp.

Sam Schupbach, vice president of Operations Processing for MPLX’s Gathering and Processing segment, said the company employs more than 200 workers in West Virginia. The company has spent more than $10 billion building infrastructure in the region over the last decade, Schupbach said.

In 2017, MPLX entered into a partnership with Antero Resources, which allowed it to expand the Sherwood Complex’s capacity, Schupbach said.

“We formed a joint venture with Antero Midstream Partners LP to support Antero Resources’ development in the Marcellus Shale,” he said. “At the time we formed the joint venture, Sherwood’s six cryogenic processing facilities had a total capacity of 1.2 billion cubic feet per day.

“At the time the joint venture was formed, ongoing development of gas processing infrastructure included three new joint-venture processing facilities totaling an additional 600 million cubic feet per day of processing capacity for Antero Resources. Since then, another 400 million cubic feet per day of capacity has been added.”

MPLX has plans in the works for another natural gas facility in Doddridge County to be called the Smithburg Complex, which will have the capacity to process 1.2 billion cubic feet per day, Schupbach said. An expected in-service date has not yet determined for the future facility, Schupbach said.

Doddridge County Commission President Greg Robinson said the Sherwood Complex is an important contributor to the local economy. “The plant itself provides real estate taxes, but there’s also numerous pipelines that feed that plant,” he said. “And those are all part of the tax. When a facility provides employment in addition to the tax base, that helps the community and helps the people — it’s how some residents earn their income.”

The facility and its employees are also highly involved in local affairs in the county, Robinson said. “They’ve contributed to many different good causes. If there’s some big event going on, most of the time we can count on them to be a willing partner,” Robinson said. “We appreciate the willingness of the plant to help — to be good neighbors, and for their willingness to contribute.”

The county’s tax base has grown substantially in recent years, largely due to increased oil and gas activity, Robinson said. “In addition, the oil and gas provides through the royalties. Many residents get a significant amount of income every year,” he said.

NGL are separated from “wet” natural gas

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

Mirijana of Doddridge April 16, 2019 at 1:37 pm

Robinson is no longer a Doddridge County Commissioner. His term expired on 12/31/18. Robinson also has mineral leases with Antero. He reported on his financial disclosure forms, filed with Secretary of States office, that more than 20% of his income was from oil and gas.

The new plant that is being built by MarkWest is 1/2 mile from the County middle and elementary schools and 1/2 mile from the County Park. The site prep for this plant involves mountain top removal and valley fills. The new plant will be processing shale gas from wells in Tyler, Ritchie Nd Wetzel Counties. This means that more pipelines and shale wells are in our future.

Both plant locations have impacted FEMA Floodplains and sadly are located upstream of the County municipal water supply.

Numerous violations have been written by WV DEP for the work being done there.

Charles Young, author of this article, needs to do a bit more research prior to publication. He makes no mention of adverse effects on the community created by these plants. It is yet another
article glorifying the industry.

Mirijana
Doddridge resident

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MDN on MPLX May 10, 2019 at 8:15 am

MarkWest Gathered & Processed Volumes Thru the Roof in 1Q19

From Marcellus Drilling News, May 9, 2019

MarkWest Energy, now part of MPLX (Marathon Petroleum) operates the nation’s largest cryogenic gas processing plant operation in the country, the Sherwood Complex, in West Virginia. MarkWest/MPLX released its quarterly update yesterday. The company has grown, a lot, with operations in multiple regions of the country.

Our interest is, of course, the Marcellus/Utica. Gathered volumes in the M-U averaged 3.4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 1Q19, up a huge 26% versus 1Q18. Processed volumes averaged 6.0 Bcf/d, an 18% increase over 1Q18 thanks to expanded volumes from the Sherwood (in Doddridge County, WV) and Harmon Creek (in Washington County, PA) processing plants.

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