Caiman Energy was recently slapped with a $224,000 fine.  The offending incident occurred last year, when a subcontractor of theirs improperly constructed a stream crossing involved with pipeline construction.  ”A sludge blanket” was the result of the stream pollution.

Despite this, a spokeswoman of Caiman said that the company, “believes in respect for people and the environment.”  So hopefully Caiman will do a better job at choosing its subcontractors for its planned investments in processing infrastructure.

In Marshall County, Caiman Energy currently has the capacity to process 200 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.  The company plans to increase that to 920 million cubic feet of gas per day by the end of 2013.  This would involve improving their Fort Beeler cryogenic plant, as well as building a new plant. In addition to this, they’re planning a fractionation facility along the Ohio River which will be able to separate 42,000 barrels of ethane daily by October 2012.  Until a cracker plant is built in Appalachia, the ethane will be put in a pipline to Canada.

Read the full article in the Wheeling Intelligencer…

Kurt Dettinger, General Counsel to WV Governor

Don Rigby and Kurt Dettinger are working to bring an ethane cracker to West Virginia; and, the County Commissioners in the Northern Panhandle are doing so as well. Caiman Energy with natural gas processing plants in Marshall County plans to send its ethane to Canada.

During the Marcellus Natural Gas Liquids & Shale Gas Infrastructure Summit in Canonsburg, Pa., Dettinger, general counsel for West Virginia acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, and Rigby, executive director of the Wheeling-based Regional Economic Development Partnership, spoke of efforts to attract a $1 billion ethane cracker that would bring hundreds of jobs to the Mountain State.

“It would be up to the individual investor and their needs,” Dettinger said, when asked which site he believed would be more likely to attract a cracker, though declining to name the companies considering the project. “We will just be glad when they choose West Virginia.”  However,  Texas-based El Paso Midstream Group is seeking ethane supplies to send 90,000 barrels of ethane daily to Louisiana via an 1,100-mile pipeline.

During a presentation at the conference, Caiman Vice President Art Cantrell stated, “If built, new ethane crackers are projected at four to five years out,” as a reason to send the ethane north of the border,” to Canada for cracking. Caiman has completed a purchase of 150 acres adjacent to the Ohio River south of Moundsville – the former Olin Chemical site – where Caiman will build a processing plant for its propane, butane and pentane.

State officials and business leaders are getting more optimistic by the day about West Virginia’s chances of landing a multibillion-dollar ethane cracker plant that could create more than 500 full-time jobs. Last week, Bayer CEO Greg Babe told a chemical industry trade publication that his company has received several inquires about the use of its sites in Institute and New Martinsville for a cracker, which would process ethane from Marcellus Shale natural gas in the Appalachian Region. After hearing about Babe’s comments, state Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette predicted that a company’s decision to build a cracker plant would come “sooner rather than later” and possibly by the end of the year.

Caiman Energy will be able to process 520 million cubic feet of natural gas per day at its Fort Beeler facility by next summer, as the company invests $500 million in the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia, according to the Wheeling Intelligencer.  

The Fort Beeler cryogenic plant, near Cameron along U.S. 250 in Marshall County, now processes about 120 million cubic feet of gas per day, some from the near-by Whipkey pad of TransEnergy. By the end of this year, an additional 200 million cubic feet per day of processing capacity is expected. Then an additional 200 million more by next summer is planned, bringing the total capacity to 520 million cubic feet per day. Also, construction of Caiman’s pipeline network is ongoing, with much of the system set for completion by the end of this year.

Much of the Northern Panhandle Marcellus gas is of the “wet” variety containing ethane, propane and butane in addition to methane. Caiman’s 25-mile pipeline – designed to carry these natural gas liquids from the Fort Beeler site to its fractionation facility on the Ohio River – is also scheduled for completion this year.

The fractionation facility is currently under construction, just north of the Marshall-Wetzel county line on the Ohio River. This plant will separate the ethane, butane and propane from each other so they can be marketed. Once the pipelines and processing facilities are finished, Caiman’s total investment in Marshall and Wetzel counties will be more than $500 million.

Caiman and NOVA Chemicals signed an agreement on March 8th for the supply of 20,000 barrels per day of ethane on a long-term basis from the Fort Beeler Plant to feed the Corunna cracker plant, for the Sarnia, Ontario (Canada), petrochemical market. This arrangement is subject to NOVA Chemicals finalizing a pipeline transportation agreement to transport ethane from Fort Beeler into Ontario.