Residents alarmed by explosion & fire in rural area

From an Article by Scott McCloskey, Wheeling Intelligencer, July 24, 2018

Photo: Processing equipment located near a natural gas well site along Sorghum Ridge Road near Sherrard burns Monday morning after an explosion at the site.

SHERRARD — No injuries were reported when an explosion and fire occurred at a Marshall County natural gas well pad at mid-morning Monday.

Sorghum Ridge Road resident Dave Reinbeau had just finished his routine check on his livestock and fences and returned to his home when the explosion occurred within processing equipment at the well pad site.

Reinbeau said he actually saw and felt the initial blast which occurred near the middle of his Sorghum Ridge property after he had returned to his house on the nearby hillside. He said he saw a tanker truck exit the site just seconds before the explosion occurred.

“It felt like a force,” said Reinbeau, who went on to explain that he called 911 right away because he knew several workers were on the site. “I knew that those four guys were out there working. That’s all I could think about. I called 911,” Reinbeau said.

Marshall County Office of Emergency Management Director Tom Hart said while no injuries were reported with the blast at the Reinbeau well pad, one worker on the site was evaluated by EMS crews for being overheated. Hart said emergency crews responded to the blast and fire after the initial call came in shortly before 10 a.m.

“There were no injuries, no evacuations. It is under control at this point. They are just waiting for it to burn off so that they can start assessing,” Hart said shortly after responding to the site. “There were actually crews from Williams Energy on scene that were working at the site. The actual well pad is owned by Southwestern Energy.

“When the fire crews arrived on scene, they did experience heavy fire deployment. It was actually processing equipment that was on fire. It was not the well pad itself. There was an explosion prior to first responders arriving on scene, then after the fire departments did arrive, there was a secondary explosion as well,” he added.

Hart said officials decided to let the fire burn itself out. “What they are trying to do is they’re keeping some of the condensate tanks and other equipment cooled down while they let the fire burn off at this point,” Hart explained.

Volunteer fire departments hauled water from a hydrant on W.Va. 88 to the scene of the fire. Hart said the fire was out by 12:36 p.m. Emergency crews cleared the scene at 2 p.m.

Southwestern Energy spokeswoman Christina Fowler said there were no injuries reported. She said they were aware of the problem and it was resolved.

Several of the neighbors living along the ridge called or stopped to check on each other after the blasts. At least one Sherrard resident living nearly a half-mile away reported hearing and feeling the blast inside her house.

Reinbeau said he went to a neighbor’s house located a short distance away because he didn’t know if there was anything “toxic” in the air from the ongoing fire.

“I stayed over there until I found out it wasn’t harmful,” he said. Reinbeau said he checked on dozens of his farm animals following the blast and they all appeared to be fine.

Fire crews from Mount Olivet, Limestone, Sherrard, Glen Dale and Bethlehem volunteer fire departments and the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office responded. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection also responded to evaluate the scene.

Ethane Pipeline to NOVA cracker in Canada

From an Article by Casey Junkins, Wheeling Intelligencer, January 27, 2018

WHEELING — After hundreds of eminent domain lawsuits, several route adjustments and at least $500 million worth of investments, Kinder Morgan is pumping Marcellus and Utica shale ethane from the Cadiz area in Ohio to Michigan for export to Canada via the Utopia Pipeline.

Despite continuing efforts to bring a $6 billion ethane cracker to Belmont County in Ohio, proposals by China Energy to build $83.7 billion worth of petrochemical projects in West Virginia and ongoing construction on the Royal Dutch Shell plant north of Pittsburgh, there is still no end-user for ethane in the Marcellus and Utica region.

“The project team, in coordination with local, state and federal agencies, has done a tremendous job developing a project that provides ethane takeaway capacity from the Utica Shale to the growing petrochemical industry, while also maintaining an open dialogue with the local communities to support their needs and consider alternatives,” Don Lindley, president of natural gas liquids for Kinder Morgan, said. “We are extremely pleased to have placed the Utopia Pipeline into service.”

The Utopia is the latest pipeline to send ethane — drawn from fracked shale wells across Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania — to other regions for processing. The Utopia joins these pipelines in shipping ethane out the Marcellus and Utica area:

∫>> the Enterprise Products Partners ATEX Express pipeline, which sends ethane to the Gulf Coast;

∫>> the Sunoco Logistics Mariner East pipeline, which sends ethane to the East Coast for export to Europe; and

∫>> the Sunoco Mariner West pipeline, which sends ethane northwest to Canada.

The 12-inch diameter Utopia conduit has a current capacity of 50,000 barrels per day, but this volume could eventually be expanded to 75,000 daily barrels.

For perspective, West Virginia University Energy Institute Director Brian Anderson recently said Shell ethane cracker set for Beaver County, PA will likely consume about 100,000 barrels of ethane each day. He also said the potential PTT Global Chemical project at Dilles Bottom, OH as initially proposed, would use about 70,000 barrels each day.

However, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the nation’s ethane production should reach 1.7 million barrels per day this year. This is an increase of 450,000 barrels per day compared to 2016 yields, so the production increase could leave plenty of ethane in place to run the proposed local petrochemcial projects.

The Utopia stretches northwest from the MarkWest Energy Harrison County OH facilities into Michigan. Plans call for the ethane to then be shipped across the border into Ontario, Canada for cracking by NOVA Chemicals Corp., which already receives ethane from the Mariner West line.

During the process of building the Utopia, Kinder Morgan officials filed numerous lawsuits seeking the right to use eminent domain to clear the path for the pipeline path in Ohio. Company attorneys claimed the firm could exercise eminent domain via the “common carrier” clause. This stipulation would apply if another form of natural gas or oil flowed along the same line as the ethane, so company leaders said they would leave 10 percent of the line open for this.

Along the way, the pipeline giant also agreed to move the line to avoid an organic farm near Cadiz. The farmer, Mick Luber, had feared the pipeline work would destroy the land he had worked for years to cultivate. The farm produces a variety of fruit, vegetables and flowers.

“I am still able to farm as I did. They did not go through my field,” Luber said. However, Luber said the industry, as a whole, continues making work as an organic farmer more challenging.

“There are three active wells around me, diesel motors running at a compressor station, and multiple pipelines,” he said. “It is not like it used to be, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to slow down.”