Gas pipeline welder at Hastings, WV (Wetzel County)

Donald Watts was born January 1, 1929 in Mannington, WV son of the late Rev. Glenn D. and Minnie J. (Thomas) Watts.

He was a retired welder for C.N.G. Transmission in Hastings, WV, a member of New Martinsville United Methodist Church and a member of Wetzel Lodge #39 A.F.&A.M. He was a loving father and pap and always there to lend a helping hand to neighbors and friends.

In addition to his parents he was preceded in death by three brothers, Dale, George “Buck” and Robert Watts; infant sister, Betty Jane Watts and son-in-law, Kenneth “Bill” Fisher.

Surviving are his high school sweetheart and beloved wife of seventy-three years, Erma O. (Barr) Watts; two daughters, Donna (Robert) Jones of Paden City, WV and Brenda (Steve) Rector of New Martinsville, WV; four grandchildren, Marsha (Joseph) Craycraft of Wheeling, WV, Kenneth (Lori) Fisher of Asheville, NC, Brian Jones of Paden City, WV and Angela (Jordan) Swanberg of Paden City, WV; eight great-grandchildren, Nathan, Kelsey and Lola Fisher, Emma and Sarah Craycraft and Josiah, Autumn and Aspen Swanberg and several nieces, nephews and cousins.

Friends received 4-7 p.m., Thursday, February 10, 2022 at the Jarvis-Williams Funeral Home, 1224 S Bridge St., New Martinsville. Funeral service 1 p.m., Friday, February 11, 2022 at the New Martinsville United Methodist Church with son-in-law, Pastor Steven Rector officiating. Burial to follow in Paden Memorial Gardens in Paden City, WV.

Memorial contributions may be made to New Martinsville United Methodist Church, 10 Howard Jeffers Dr., New Martinsville, WV 26155. Family is requesting everyone to wear a mask.

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Dominion to work on Hastings natural gas plant in late September of 2013

From the Reuters News Staff, August 13, 2013

NEW YORK, Aug 13 (Reuters) – Dominion Transmission Inc, a unit of Dominion Resources Inc, on Tuesday said it would take the Hastings natural gas extraction plant in West Virginia out of service for planned maintenance from Sept. 30 through Oct. 3.

In a website posting, the company said all gathering system production and direct taps feeding into its system flowing to Hastings would be shut-in for the work.

Gathering production feeding the Lightburn and Schultz extraction plants, also in West Virginia, may not be shut-in if such production can continue to flow without constraints, the posting said.

Dominion Transmission said it would monitor field pressures in order to preserve system integrity and may need to adjust flows to each plant during the outage.

The Hastings extraction/fractionation plant is located near Pine Grove, West Virginia. It produces and supplies natural gas liquids including propane, normal butane, isobutane and natural gasoline, according to the company’s website.

### MarkWest lets contract for Hopedale Ohio fractionator for propane plus three higher hydrocarbons ###

Article by Robert Brelsford, Downstream Technology Editor, Oil & Gas Journal, 02/12/18

MarkWest Energy Partners LP—a wholly owned subsidiary of MPLX LP—has let a contract to a division of Honeywell UOP LLC to deliver a natural gas liquids fractionation unit at its existing Hopedale complex in Jewett, Harrison County, Ohio.

As part of the contract, UOP will provide one of its proprietary, pre-engineered UOP Russell fractionation plants capable of producing 60,000 b/d of NGLs, the service provider said.

The fractionation system will recover propane, isobutane, normal butane, and natural gasoline from mixed Marcellus and Utica shale NGL production to be used as feedstock in petrochemical manufacturing.

While neither UOP nor MarkWest immediately disclosed a value or duration of the contract, MPLX told investors on February 1st that it planned to complete and commission the proposed 60,000-b/d Hopedale IV propane-plus fractionation plant during this year’s fourth quarter.

MarkWest most recently commissioned its 60,000-b/d Hopedale III propane-plus fractionation plant in first-quarter 2017, according to a January 8th presentation from MPLX.

Including Hopedale III, the Hopedale complex currently houses three units providing 180,000 b/d of propane-plus fractionation capacity (OGJ Online, Feb. 6, 2017).

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FRACTIONATOR Stuck in Intersection — Superload breaks down, will sit idle for a week in Steubenville OH

From an Article by David Singer, WTOV (Steubenville), Sunday, July 29th 2018 —

The over-sized “superload” scheduled to make its way through West Virginia over to Harrison County, Ohio has halted in Steubenville.

The super load truck initially got stuck early Sunday morning in Weirton on US Route 22 before breaking down on the University Boulevard ramp just across the river. And that is where the super load will stay until next Sunday.

Crews had initially hoped to make an all-day trip to get the load to Hopedale, but the breakdown means the haul will have to stay in place until it can make another attempt next weekend. Until then, the OH Route 7 and US Route 22 exit ramp for University Boulevard will remain closed.

This is the detour until further notice:

Drivers exiting onto University Boulevard from southbound OH Route 7 must take 7 until the light, then turn right. Those travelling east on US Route 22 must take the Route 7 north exit and proceed until the second light. Drivers will then turn onto University Boulevard.

MarkWest Fractionator as Distillation Column for Hopedale OH

Shale Condensate aka "Natural Gasoline"

Despite Climate Warnings, New Export Rules Open Crude Oil Floodgates

[Significant yields of shale well “condensate,” that is ultra-light crude hydrocarbons, accompany the crude oil and/or natural gas from many shale formations.]

From an Article by Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams, December 31, 2014

Opening the door to U.S. crude exports is expected to give relief to some domestic drillers who have been forced to sell their shale oil at a discount of as much as $15 a barrel versus global markets as fast-rising domestic supplies overwhelm local demand.

Despite warnings about how such a move could accelerate climate change, the Obama administration has quietly loosened its regulations on crude oil exports, “opening the floodgates” for the shipment of as much as a million barrels per day of ultra-light crude, also known as condensate, to the rest of the world.

The obscure rule change by the Department of Commerce “will likely please domestic oil drillers, foreign trade partners and some Republicans who have urged Obama to loosen the export ban,” Reuters reports. “The latest measures were wrapped in regulatory jargon and couched by some as a basic clarification of existing rules, but analysts said the message was unambiguous: a green light for any company willing and able to process their light condensate crude through a distillation tower, a simple piece of oilfield kit.”

According to Bloomberg: The guidelines could “open the floodgates to substantial increases in exports,” Citigroup Inc. said in a research note. Total U.S. production of light and ultra-light crude oil now exceeds 3.81 million barrels a day, and exports could reach 1 million barrels daily by the end of 2015, Citi Research said.

…In addition to approving applications, the government also allows companies to “self-certify,” that is, to export their products without seeking the permission if they think the law allows for the exchange.

Officials were quick to point out that most untreated crude is still covered by the existing ban.

“It’s a long way from here to a full repeal of the export ban, and they went out of their way to stipulate that this is not, in their view, crude oil,” Jeff Navin, a former deputy chief of staff at the Energy Department, said in an e-mail to Bloomberg. “But it does show how they’re thinking about exporting at least some of our light products.”

But earlier this year, environmental watchdogs warned that any loosening of the decades-old ban on crude oil exports could lead to the release of billions of tons of additional carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

“Allowing U.S. crude oil exports will result in increased profits that will in turn result in increased oil production,” read a report(pdf) by Oil Change International, Lifting the Ban, Cooking the Climate. “In the midst of President Obama’s ‘All of the Above’ energy strategy, the ban on crude oil exports is one of the few policies in place that effectively limits oil and gas extraction and protects our climate. The Obama Administration and the U.S. Congress must take a stand for the climate and resolve to leave the crude oil export ban intact.”

As Andy Rowell, of Oil Change International, pointed out in October, the U.S. Government Accountability Office hasrecommended against lifting the ban, saying greenhouse gas emissions would rise if the ban was lifted—an outcome with serious implications for the climate and environment.

“It is important to remember what the GAO said last week in its report,” Rowell wrote. “It argued that ‘additional crude oil production may pose risks to the quality and quantity of surface groundwater sources; increase greenhouse gas and other emissions; and increase the risk of spills from crude oil transportation’.”

See also:  www.FrackCheckWV.net