MarkWest Sherwood Gas Processing Complex on US Route 50 in Doddridge County, WV

This Article is from the Kallanish Energy News, April 5, 2018

NORTH CANTON, Ohio — After record-setting natural gas and natural gas liquids processing in 2017, MarkWest Energy Partners continues to invest heavily in the Appalachian Basin.

The midstreamer added two natural-gas processing plants in West Virginia in 2017 and plans to add six more in 2018: four in West Virginia and two in Pennsylvania, said company spokeswoman Tina Rush, at the Utica Midstream conference at Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio.

Kallanish Energy attended the one-day program, presented by ShaleDirectories.com and the Greater Canton Chamber of Commerce. MarkWest built three fractionation facilities in 2017: one each in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. It plans to add three more in 2018: one in each of the three states, Rush told the 130 people attending the conference.

“The growth is still there,” Rush said on the increasing demand for processing and fractionation in the Appalachian Basin. Estimates are that 45% of natural gas growth in the U.S. will occur in the Northeast, she said.

The new plants in the Utica and Marcellus shales are part of MarkWest’s 2018 projects with a combined $2 billion price tag, she said.

The company set a record in the fourth quarter of 2107, gathering 2.7 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas and processing 5.2 Bcf/d, according to Rush.

Gathering volume was up 19% and processing volume was up 14% over 2016, she said. The company also processed 389,000 barrels per day (BPD) of liquids in Q4, also a company record. That was an increase of 19% over Q4 2016.

The Marcellus and Utica shales account for 65% of the company’s gathering, 70% of its processing and 90% of its fractionation, Rush reported.

The company’s Sherwood plant in West Virginia is now the fourth-largest such facility in the U.S. By late 2018, that plant is expected to be the No. 1 processing plant in the country, and is projected to be the No. 1 plant in North America by the end of 2019, Rush said.

Appalachian Basin projects, plus additions in the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico, will boost MarkWest’s natural gas processing capacity by 1.5 Bcf/d, and fractionation capacity by 100,000 BPD of liquids, she said.

Marathon Petroleum, the parent company of MarkWest, is looking at moving Appalachian Basin butane by pipeline to as many as 10 Midwest refineries, said Jason Stechschulte, commercial development manager for Marathon Pipe Line.

The company now moves condensate and natural gasoline via pipelines from the Utica Shale in eastern Ohio to refineries in western Ohio, Michigan and Illinois. Butane would be shipped in batches in that pipeline system and additional connections could be made to other pipelines moving butane, Stechschulte said.

Under pressure, butane would flow as a liquid in the pipelines, he said. The butane would be used to blend with gasoline to make winter fuels at company refineries. Such shipments are a year or two away and would require the addition of storage facilities at the refineries, he said.

Marathon is also looking at extending its liquid pipelines into southeastern Ohio to reach other processing/fractionation facilities, Stechschulte said.

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### MarkWest Sherwood Plant helps growth and development in Doddridge County ###

From an Article by Kirsten Reneau, Clarksburg Exponent-Telegraph (WV News), March 29, 2018

WEST UNION — The MarkWest Sherwood Complex continues to help the residents of Doddridge County in a variety of ways through the site’s work in oil and gas.

MarkWest is a wholly-owned subsidiary of MPLX. The Sherwood Complex first began operations in October 2012, said Jamal Kheiry, communications manager for Marathon Petroleum Corp. “MPLX’s natural gas processing complexes remove the heavier and more valuable hydrocarbon components from natural gas,” Kheiry said.

Photos: The Sherwood Processing Facility — Three more processing plants were added to the MarkWest Sherwood facility this past year.

In 2017, through a joint venture between MarkWest and Antero Midstream, the company was able to add three more gas processing plants, with the capacity of processing 200 million cubic feet of gas every day. Last year, the company invested $200 million in construction.

“The Sherwood Complex now processes natural gas in nine processing plants, with a total capacity of 1.8 billion cubic feet per day,” Kheiry said. “Sherwood also includes a 40,000 barrel per day de-ethanization unit, which separates ethane from natural gas.”

There is still more construction underway at Sherwood, with plans to build two more gas processing plants with the capacity of 200 million cubic feet per day through a joint venture with Antero Midstream. “These new units support development of Antero Resources’ extensive Marcellus Shale acreage in West Virginia,” Kheiry said.

“The new gas processing plants are expected to be complete this year. There is also the potential to develop up to six additional processing facilities at Sherwood and at a future expansion site. Separate from the joint venture with Antero, MarkWest is also building a 20,000-barrel per-day ethane fractionation plant.”

He explained that natural gas production begins with the drilling of wells into gas-bearing rock formations, and a network of pipelines (also known as gathering systems) directly connects to wellheads in the production area.

“These gathering systems transport raw, or untreated, natural gas to a central location for treating and processing. A large gathering system may involve thousands of miles of gathering lines connected to thousands of wells,” Kheiry said.

Next comes compression, a mechanical process in which a volume of natural gas is compressed to a higher pressure. This allows the natural gas to be gathered more efficiently, as well as delivered to a higher pressure system.

“Field compression is typically used to allow a gathering system to operate at a lower pressure or provide sufficient discharge pressure to deliver natural gas into a higher pressure system,” Kheiry said. “Since wells produce at progressively lower field pressures as they deplete, field compression is needed to maintain throughput across the gathering system.” After natural gas has been processed at the Sherwood complex, the heavier and more valuable hydrocarbon components are separated out.

“Processing aids in allowing the residue gas remaining after extraction of NGLs to meet the quality specifications for long-haul pipeline transportation and commercial use,” Kheiry said. These “have been extracted as a mixed natural gas liquid (NGL) stream, (and) can be further separated into their component parts through the process of fractionation.”

Fractionation is defined as the separation of the mixture of extracted NGLs into individual components for end-use sale. This is done by controlling the temperature and pressure of the stream of mixed NGLs to use the different boiling points and vapor pressures of separate products.

One of the largest facilities in the Northeast, the MarkWest Sherwood Plant makes a significant financial impact in Doddridge County. “We are proud to be part of Doddridge County and to contribute to its economic foundation,” Kheiry said.

County Commission President Greg Robinson, said the tax impact has made a major difference. “The plant itself provides real estate taxes, but there’s also numerous pipelines that feed that plant,” Robinson said. “And those are all part of the tax.”

This, along with their employment of those in the county and the commuters who may stop to use Doddridge County gas stations, restaurants, and other amenities, all contribute back to the economy.

“It provides in many different ways,” Robinson said. “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.”

He added that the Sherwood Plant has been “extremely good” for the county because of their “willingness to be good neighbors.” “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, primarily because of the oil and gas industry, he said. “In addition, the oil and gas provides through the royalties. Many residents get a significant amount of income every year.”

Because of this increased tax revenue, they’ve been able to tackle a variety of projects that may have otherwise taken much longer. This includes construction of a new county library; taking care of a variety of infrastructure needs, such as streets and sewage projects; increasing their rainy day fund; contributing to the medical facility; and beginning the process of extending water to various parts of the county where it wasn’t previously available.

This past year, they were able to take on an exterior renovation project for the Doddridge County Courthouse, which cost around $2.5 million. “We’ve set aside money to start a new annex for the courthouse,” Robinson said. “Before we can do anything to the inside, we’ve got to move some people out, and we have no place to put them. It’s a logistical thing.”

The Board of Education has also benefited from Sherwood’s presence, Superintendent Adam Cheeseman said. “The revenue generated for our schools has been a big asset,” he said. With these funds, they’ve been able to offer development opportunities for teachers, supplement instructional activities and programs, and focus on larger one-time expenditures.

“The latest was the school entrance at the elementary school and the auxiliary gym for the high school, and we’re in the middle of a large project — a new football filed. baseball field, and athletic complex, with a new BOE complex,” Cheeseman said. “Sherwood, and oil and gas overall, have put us in a very good place.”

While these funds are exciting, “more exciting is that we’re hoping to further our partnership with MarkWest,” Cheeseman said. Already partners in education, he plans to connect the facilities with their school system, with hopes of providing opportunities ranging from internships to observation hours to trainings for students at Doddridge County High School.

Ethane, propane and butane (NGL) by-product from Marcellus and Utica shale wells

From an Article by Casey Junkins, Martins Ferry Times-Leader, December 22, 2017

CLARINGTON –A new U.S. Department of Energy report identifies a plan to store 420 million barrels of ethane, propane and butane in underground salt caverns along the Ohio River as a key to developing the $36 billion Appalachian Storage Hub that experts say ultimately could create 100,000 jobs.

Mountaineer NGL Storage Managing Director David Hooker said his firm plans to spend at least $150 million to build the salt caverns along Ohio Route 7 in Monroe County, while the total investment for the project could reach $500 million. He hopes to begin storing ethane and other natural gas liquids along the river by the end of 2019 –- at a site that will be only about 10 miles south of the proposed $6 billion PTT Global Chemical ethane cracker.

“We’re pleased to see that the federal government has identified the need for NGL storage in the region and specifically sites Mountaineer NGL Storage as part of this Natural Gas Liquids Primer. We commend the DOE for providing this resource to help educate the public on the importance of keeping NGLs local to the region and believe our project is vital to help foster additional investments across the NGL supply chain,” Hooker said.

Hooker said he already has a permit from the Ohio Department of Transportation, but is still waiting for authorization from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Hooker said he expects all environmental permits for the project to be obtained within the first six months of 2018, after which construction can begin.

Hooker, along with elected officials and other industry leaders, said the DOE report shows how vital and viable his project is.

“This Department of Energy study proves that what we are doing here in the local region is a national issue. Underground natural gas liquids storage — and the Mountaineer NGL project in particular — is critical to the future of shale development in our region,” Monroe County Commissioner Mick Schumacher said. “We need to utilize our natural resources locally and grow jobs in our local economies rather than exporting our natural resources with little benefit to our residents.”

Since discussion of a Marcellus and Utica shale ethane cracker commenced, industry leaders have maintained a major obstacle is the lack of underground storage capacity for the natural gas liquid. This is needed, they say, to ensure a constant source of ethane to the cracker plant in the event of supply disruptions.

“The Mountaineer NGL Storage Project is centrally located to an existing pipeline network that can both deliver ethane to storage and withdraw it and deliver it to markets that need it now and in the future. As additional consumers of ethane and propane locate or expand in West Virginia, Mountaineer NGL will be ready to serve their needs,” West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association Executive Director Anne Blankenship said.

Monroe County Commissioner Carl Davis said he believes the Mountaineer NGL project is “essential to the future of the proposed PTT Global project, as well as the Marcellus and Utica shale plays and future exploration and production of our natural resources.”

“This is very good news for Belmont County and the entire Upper Ohio Valley region,” Belmont County Commissioner Mark Thomas added of the study.

Propane Tanker Accident Closes I-64 in WV

I-64 Remains Closed Between Huntington Mall and Milton in Cabell County, WV, Due to Tanker Crash

Update Report from WSAZ, News 3, Huntington, WV, February 13, 2015

Cabell County, WV (WSAZ) — The WV DOH and Milton Police are still saying that the eastbound lanes of I-64 between the Huntington Mall and Milton could reopen in a couple of hours, while the westbound lanes will be closed most of the day following a propane tanker crash early Friday morning.

The lanes were closed after an ambulance driver noticed the tanker on its side about 3:30 a.m. Friday at the 23 mile marker.

I-64 between the Huntington Mall (Exit 20 A & B) and Milton (Exit 28) is shut down in both directions. All traffic is being diverted off the interstate onto Route 60 at those exits. Traffic on US Route 60 in backed up in both directions due to the detour.

Crews are continuing to work to drain the propane from the tanker. Several wreckers were brought in to tilt the truck so that the remaining 70% of the propane on-board could be suctioned off.

Carrie Bly with the DOH says crews were having a hard time draining the tanker because when it crashed, it landed on the valve used to pump the propane out.

Investigators say it appears the driver veered off the highway and hit the guardrail. They say it looks like he over corrected, and his truck overturned. He had to be removed from the truck with the Jaws of Life. He was taken to St. Mary’s Medical Center, where we are told he is currently in critical condition. His name has not been released.

Cabell County Schools sent a recorded message Friday, telling parents and guardians to expect significant delays in transporting students in eastern Cabell County, due to the interstate closure. School officials say they hope more buses are able to leave on schedule. Cabell Midland students who drive will be able to leave a little early, at 2:30 p.m.

Keep clicking on WSAZ Mobile and WSAZ.com for the latest on this story.

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One lane of I-64 westbound will remain closed one to two days following tractor trailer accident

From a News Broadcast, WOWK, News 13, Huntington, WV, October 17, 2013

Cabell County, WV (WOWK) — According to dispatchers, the right westbound lane of I-64 will be closed for at least one to two days due to bridge and guardrail repairs. The left westbound lane of I-64 has been reopened following an accident involving a tractor trailer carrying mail.

The westbound lanes of I-64 in Cabell County, WV had been closed due to an accident. Crews are on the scene of an overturned truck near mile marker 9, just before the 5th Street exit.

The driver of the truck says he has been driving for nearly 30 years. He said this is his first accident. The man was heading to Ashland, KY to drop off a truckload of mail. He lost control as he went around a curve and flipped, he said. Firefighters said slick road conditions are to blame.

A propane tanker truck ran into the back of the tractor trailer after it wrecked. Both drivers managed to escape without injury. Firefighters said the propane tank was 90 percent full. They said the situation could have been much worse if the tank was punctured.

Crews hope to have the westbound lanes reopened by 3 p.m. Traffic is backed up for miles. Drivers can take the Hal Greer Boulevard exit as an alternate route, in Huntington, WV.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

SENECA LAKE -- The deepest Finger Lake averages 290 feet and is 40 miles long from Watkins Glen up to Geneva, NY

FERC Approves NY Methane Storage Project at Seneca Lake

From a News Article by Peter Mantius, Natural Resources News Service, October 3, 2014

Brushing aside warnings of dangerous geological risk, federal regulators say construction can start immediately on a methane gas storage project next to Seneca Lake that has galvanized opposition from wine and tourism businesses across the Finger Lakes in upstate New York.

The  decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission represents a major breakthrough for Houston-based Crestwood Midstream. The company has been waging a five-year campaign for permission to convert long-abandoned lakeside salt caverns into a regional storage hub for both methane gas and liquid petroleum gas, or LPG, from fracking operations in Pennsylvania.

FERC has jurisdiction over the methane gas storage portion of the project, while the state Department of Environmental Conservation has the final say over the storage of LPG, mostly propane and butane. The company has been trying to persuade both agencies that the old caverns are ideal storage sites for highly-pressurized, volatile hydrocarbons. Scientists who are not paid by the company disagree and have warned of the caverns’ unstable geology.

In May, after 14 months of review, FERC granted conditional approval of Crestwood’s request to expand its existing methane storage into a cavern that has a history of instability. Meanwhile, the NY-DEC has been evaluating the LPG portion of the project since 2009. It announced in August plans to hold an “issues conference” to further weigh the evidence before ruling.

Crestwood’s storage hub would be located in a cluster of several dozen salt caverns on the west shore of Seneca Lake less than three miles north of the village of Watkins Glen, population 1,859. The company continues to mine salt at the site, and it already uses a former salt cavern to store methane gas. FERC has allowed it to expand its working gas capacity from 1.45 billion cubic feet to 2.0 bcf.

Typically, methane gas is transported to the caverns by pipeline, while LPG storage would require truck and rail transport. If Crestwood wins DEC approval, it would store LPG in two other caverns less than a quarter mile away from the compressed methane.

The company has asserted that the history of the storage caverns, including details of their flaws, is a trade secret. And state and federal regulators have complied with the company’s requests to keep most cavern information out of the public eye. But reports dating back decades by engineers employed by the caverns’ owners — tracked down in Internet searches — candidly spell out their defects.

Opponents of Crestwood’s proposed storage hub have expressed alarm over FERC’s brisk dismissal of potential risks, but safety issues are not their only concern. They also fear increased air and noise pollution, a steep increase in LPG truck traffic through the village of Watkins Glen and new LPG rail traffic over a spindly 80-year-old trestle that spans the Watkins Glen gorge, one of the state’s Top 10 tourist destinations.

In March, two internationally renowned vintners who recently purchased 65 acres directly across Seneca Lake from Crestwood’s property wrote Gov. Andrew Cuomo to urge him to block the LPG portion of the plan.

“The potential for accidents, the threat to fresh water quality and the visual impact of a 60-foot flare stack with massive compressors is not compatible with developing the tremendous potential of the region,” wrote Paul Hobbs, owner of the Paul Hobbs Winery in Sonoma County, California, and Johannes Selbach of the Selbach-Oster estate in Germany’s Mosel Valley.

“For the past several years we have explored the vineyards and wineries of the Finger Lakes in search of an ideal parcel for growing world class Riesling,” Hobbs and Selbach wrote the governor. The site chosen on the east side of Seneca Lake just outside Watkins Glen, which features steep slopes, low-PH scale shale and slate soils and a cool growing season, “is unquestionably one of the premier places in the world for high quality winegrowing,” they added.

The Seneca Lake Wine Trail already has about three dozen member wineries. Michael Warren Thomas, who helped recruit Hobbs and Selbach to join them, recently met with a top aide to Cuomo to point out that their arrival could easily stimulate significant new investment in the Finger Lakes wine industry. Already, Thomas noted, Louis Barruol of Chateau St. Cosme and Master Sommelier Christopher Bates have floated the idea of building a visitor center near Watkins Glen in a bid to draw from around the world.

“These are not bulk wine producers,” Thomas said of Hobbs and Selbach. “They are people looking to make the best wine in the world in small quantities. We ought to pay attention when we have the best in the world deciding to make wine in our backyard.”

While Hobbs and Selbach arrived without invitation, hoopla, political backing or government incentives, Crestwood has been backed — both overtly and quietly — by a coalition of politicians

More than 400 people participated in a mass protest at a legislative hearing.

FERC’s decision to grant a green light for construction on the methane storage cavern preceded any public announcements of approval from the state. By law, the DEC must agree to modify Crestwood’s current underground storage permit for methane gas, and the state geologist must certify that the storage cavern is safe. However, as a practical matter, the state does not have the legal authority to block the methane storage project, if legal precedents involving federal-state jurisdiction are any gauge.

The best the public can hope for in the future is diligent monitoring of the methane storage facility for leaks and roof and wall collapses, said H.C. Clark, a Houston geologist who has sharply criticized FERC’s analysis of the cavern.

Clark pointed out in January that FERC had neglected to assess the safety implications of a massive roof collapse in the cavern. He learned about the event in a detailed report written in the late 1960s by Charles Jacoby, an engineer who worked for the cavern’s owner at the time.

During its analysis of the project, FERC had pointedly asked Crestwood if it knew of any cavern roof or wall collapses anywhere within its Seneca Lake cavern field. The company issued a qualified denial. If fact, a 400,000-ton chunk of rock — roughly the size of an aircraft carrier — had given way in the very cavern that the company proposed to use for methane storage.

After Clark disclosed the roof collapse to the public and DCBureau.org and other media outlets publicized it, FERC addressed the issue. It attributed the roof collapse to the fact that LPG and brine had been cycled in and out of the cavern at the time, eating away at its salt walls and weakening its structure. LPG has not been stored in the cavern since 1984, and it is now mostly filled with brine.

In its May 15 order conditionally approving the reopening of the cavern for methane storage, FERC concluded that after all brine has been removed and methane gas is added, “dissolution of the salt in the gallery will not occur.”

But Clark, who holds a Ph.D. in geophysics from Stanford and taught the subject for many years at Rice University, said in an interview October 1 that it would be “absurd” for FERC to imply that removing brine from the cavern removes all risk of further collapse. “This is an old — ancient by now — cavern sitting there with a broad, flat rock top, which is not what salt cavern folks want to hear,” he added. “The compressed natural gas will work its way up through any kind of abnormality.”

In August, Dr. Rob Mackenzie, a retired CEO of the Cayuga Medical Center, a hospital about 20 miles east of Watkins Glen, sought to quantify the safety risk of Crestwood’s methane gas storage operation to Schuyler County residents. An experienced risk analyst, Mackenzie prepared a formal quantitative risk analysis of the Crestwood methane gas proposal.

Mackenzie analyzed accident events — major fires, explosions, collapses, catastrophic loss of product, evacuations — at salt cavern storage facilities in the United States dating back to 1972. He concluded that the risk of an “extremely serious” salt cavern event within Schuyler County over the next 25 years is more than 35%.

Citing data from the Energy Information Administration, Mackenzie noted that in 2012 there were 414 underground gas storage facilities in the United States, including 40 in salt caverns. Aquifers and depleted oil and gas reservoirs are much more commonly used for hydrocarbon storage, and they have dramatically better safety records than salt caverns. “Worldwide, the percentage of incidents involving casualties at salt cavern facilities as a percentage of facilities in operation in 2005 was 13.6%, compared to 0.63% for depleted reservoirs and 2.5% for aquifers,” Mackenzie reported, citing a 2008 study by British health officials.

Between 1972 and 2012, there have been 18 “serious or extremely serious incidents” at U.S. salt cavern storage facilities, Mackenzie wrote, citing EIA data. “With the average number of (salt cavern) facilities in operation through most of the last two decades at close to 30, the U.S. incidence is about 60% (compared to 40% worldwide), and the frequency is about 1.4% per year,” he said. “Most other regulated industry sub-segments with a persistent serious to extremely serious facility incident rate of over 30% would be shut down or else voluntarily discontinued, except in wartime.”

Mackenzie also found that nine of the 18 salt cavern incidents involved large fires and/or explosions; six involved loss of life or serious injury; eight involved evacuations of between 30 and 2,000 residents; and 13 involved extremely serious property losses.

FERC, the regulatory agency, saw no need to further question the suitability of Crestwood’s salt cavern storage.

Placards for Hazardous Materials

Petrochemicals will give W.Va. more harm than help

Opinion-Editorial by S. Tom Bond, Charleston Gazette, May 4, 2014

Tom Witt’s article “Petrochemicals can boost state” (March 23) is a fascinating picture of economics cut loose from reality. The reality includes real costs not mentioned in his article and serious morality issues.

One is global warming. If you don’t believe in it after the American Association for Advancement of Science, the world’s foremost scientific organization, the Royalty Society of the United Kingdom, NASA, and the U.S. Military have published strong statements that it is happening and it is caused by industrial man, you are in a class with people who believe in extraterrestrials, black helicopters and faith healing.

The amount of waste being produced is so great the EPA had to throw up its hands and exempt it from federal law. Ten barrels of waste for each barrel of oil or oil equivalent energy. If it had to be handled like other waste producers’ offcast it would not be economically feasible to do shale drilling. Landfills are overflowing, and so much liquid waste is pumped below the surface earthquakes are occurring in some places.

The industry doesn’t have to put up bonds sufficient to plug the wells. Judging by West Virginia history from the earlier gas and oil drilling and coal mining, operators will find a way to wiggle out of it, and the public will have to pay. If so, it will get done later when it is far more expensive. Maybe these deep holes in the earth will just be abandoned for all time.

Then there are the health effects. The shale drilling technology burst onto the scene without the usual “scale up” that attends most industrial processes. Health effects have never been studied by the industry. Now that it is going on a huge scale, there is a very large number of anecdotal reports, and the industry has public relations going at full scale, not to deny them, but to cover them up, and to make it difficult for scientists to do research on air, water and noise pollution. One organization in Pennsylvania has a list of over 5,100 health incidents. Numerous scientists are looking for access to make measurements and people to run tests on.

It is dangerous business. The industry has eight times the accident rates other industries have. Exploding pipelines and huge train wreck fires abound. Insurance companies pay for this. In some areas they are refusing to insure farms where fracking takes place, because they don’t want to be caught with property losses.

The public is exposed to constant boosterism advertising and public relations which neglects these matters. I suggest Dr. Witt’s op-ed is far short of the whole reality of shale drilling. It is a narrow vision that will help some West Virginians a little, out-of-state investors a lot, but hurt far more honest citizens than the number it will help. It will hurt farm, forest, game and fish, clean water, the retirement and tourist industry essentially forever.

These are all very real externalized costs.

>>> S. Thomas Bond, of Jane Lew, is a retired teacher with a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry, a member of the Guardians of the West Fork and the Monongahela Area Watersheds Compact. <<<

Dominion @ Natrium

Dominion Planning for Startup of New Separation Plant at Natrium WV

By Casey Junkins, Staff Writer for the Wheeling Intelligencer, October 25, 2012.

NATRIUM – More than 900 construction workers are now building the $500 million Dominion plant with plans to have it ready to process 200 million cubic feet of wet gas per day by December.

“Currently we have 903 workers working in earnest on our Natrium construction project. Of the 903, 299 are local workers. In terms of completion, we are still working toward our December in-service date,” said Dominion spokesman Charles Penn.

As the plant remains under construction along the Ohio River and W.Va. 2 in Marshall County, members of the Affiliated Construction Trades Foundation remain at odds with Dominion – as well as the company building the plant on Dominion’s behalf, Chicago Bridge & Iron – for not hiring more local workers to build the facility. However, Penn emphasizes that CB&I has hired about one-third of its work force for the site from the local area.

Dominion will also look to hire 40-45 full-time, permanent workers for jobs at the plant itself upon completion. Penn said these jobs will pay from $20-$30 per hour. He said those looking for a career working at a natural gas plant will need different skills depending upon their specific positions. Some workers will need electrical experience in an industrial setting, while others will need experience in process operation control that they may have from working in gas, paper, water or chemical plants. There will also be positions for rail and tanker truck loading.

Once the wet Marcellus and Utica shale gas travels to the Dominion plant via the company’s pipeline network, the ethane, butane, propane and other natural gas liquids will be separated from the “dry” methane gas so that all the products can be individually marketed. See also here.

The Natrium plant is about to come on line at the time when Dominion is going to close a nuclear power plant in Wisconsin. “This decision was based purely on economics. Dominion was not able to move forward with our plan to grow our nuclear fleet in the Midwest to take advantage of economies of scale,” Dominion Chief Executive Officer Thomas F. Ferrell II said.