Frack Check WV » processing

Ethane Cracker Chemical Plant Still on WV Governor’s Agenda

Duane Nichols — Mon, 02 Sep 2013 13:15:28 +0000

Gov. Tomblin Puts Jobs Ahead of the State’s Environment

From an Article by Jared Hunt, Charleston Daily Mail, August 28, 2013

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS — Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin told state business leaders Wednesday he was continuing to work to bring an ethane cracker plant to the state, saying he believes the state still has a good chance to attract one. “We are working every day to make that happen, and I am convinced it will happen,” Tomblin said.

Tomblin was the keynote speaker during the opening day of the state Chamber of Commerce’s annual Business Summit, taking place at The Greenbrier.

Tomblin said the development of the natural gas industry, including gas produced from the Marcellus and Utica shales, along with the processing of their associated liquids like ethane and propane, still has “enormous potential” for the state. “I believe the abundance of these resources gives us not only a low-cost energy source, but it gives us an opportunity to re-invigorate manufacturing in our state,” he said. “We are working hard to develop the infrastructure that will support an entire industry for generations to come.”

Tomblin said the state has been a leader in enacting “reasonable and responsible” rules designed to spur growth in the industry, but he tempered that remark with a word of caution for the industry. He said if the state is willing to partner with the industry to extract natural gas, the industry must be willing to partner with the state to develop jobs within West Virginia’s borders. “We are not content to simply allow the resources of this state to be piped somewhere else to create manufacturing jobs.”

Tomblin also said the state needs to do more to educate and prepare its workforce for these potential new jobs. He said the education reform proposal that passed through the Legislature earlier this year was a first step but also challenged state business leaders to get more involved in early childhood education.

He said many students begin choosing a career path in middle school, and he thinks more businesses should get involved in schools to interest kids in careers in a given field. “I need more businesses reaching out and showing our middle school students that you can get a good job doing something you actually like,” Tomblin said.

During a panel on the future of manufacturing in the state, West Virginia University President Jim Clements spoke about the need to close what academic leaders had called the “innovation deficit.”

He said federal and state governments have consistently invested fewer dollars in schools, particularly in research and development. As a result, Clements said, the United States has lost its status as a world leader in educating its citizens.

“At one point, the United States led the world in high school graduation rates; now we rank 21st and continue to fall,” he said. “In China, over the last 10 years, the number of engineering doctorates has tripled beyond 10,000 while U.S. has 8,000.”

He said academic leaders across the country are warning that ignoring this innovation deficit would have serious long-term consequences, including a less prepared workforce, fewer technological breakthroughs and fewer jobs. “There is a sense of urgency that we’re trying to state,” Clements said. “We’re simply getting outpaced by China, South Korea, Taiwan and India.”

GreenHunter Plans to Process, Recycle, and Barge Frack Water

Duane Nichols — Sun, 12 May 2013 16:42:52 +0000

: Early Marcellus Sites: Ohio Co. WV

Warwood Frack Water Plant on Ohio River

From the Article by Casey Junkins, Wheeling Intelligencer, May 12, 2013

NEW MATAMORAS, OH – John Jack is confident that GreenHunter Water’s plans to store nearly 800,000 gallons of natural gas frack water in the Warwood section of Wheeling will become a reality.

John Jack, GreenHunter vice president, shows the storage tanks the company refurbished upon purchasing this facility along Ohio 7 in New Matamoras. He also hopes that once built, the local community will grow to appreciate the recycling facility.

“I am encouraged – it is going to happen,” Jack said regarding the Wheeling barging and frack recycling plant proposed for North 28th Street at the former Seidler’s Oil Service. “Ultimately, Wheeling will benefit from this.”

Strong opposition to GreenHunter’s Wheeling project persists, though, as a group of residents calling themselves the “Wheeling Water Warriors” continue collecting signatures of people who oppose the plant. They recently held a protest in Warwood’s Garden Park, emphasizing they do not want frack wastewater stored only about a mile north of the Wheeling Water Plant.

Jack realizes some do not support his company’s work, as Washington County, Ohio sheriff’s deputies arrested 10 people in February for protesting at the New Matamoras facility, including one man who climbed to the top of one of the storage tanks.

“Once we get our two variances approved, we will submit a final site plan,” he said of the papers that would go to the Wheeling Planning Commission. “We are moving as quickly as we can.”

He said the first variance is a request to reduce the number of required parking spaces from 27 to 13. The second is a request to cover the site’s surface with gravel, rather than asphalt. “Those are not major issues. If they say they want us to have 27, we’ll have 27. If they want asphalt, we’ll use asphalt,” he said.

But it appears as if the city is gearing up for a legal fight with GreenHunter. City Manager Robert Herron said Wheeling leaders believe the company will need to request a zone change to cross the Wheeling Heritage Trail to reach the barging terminal along the Ohio River. Although the main site of GreenHunter’s project is zoned for industrial use, the area from the trail to the river is zoned residential.

He said the Wheeling facility will operate 24 hours per day every day, though he said “90 percent to 95 percent” of the trucks that come through each day will do so during daytime hours. Though Jack said the number of trucks entering and exiting the facility each day could vary widely, he said a “good daily estimate” would be 30.

Though the 12 full-time workers GreenHunter plans to have on site may seem small, Jack noted the company will also be paying business and occupation taxes and fire service fees to the city. “Whatever the tax obligations are to work in Wheeling, we will meet those obligations,” he said.

After treating the frack water, GreenHunter plans to ship brine water – the vast majority of its volume, according to Jack – by truck back to well sites for re-use. Solid waste would go to a landfill outside Parkersburg, with liquid waste taken by barge for disposal at one of several deep injection wells.

The U.S. Coast Guard continues to review whether fracking waste can be shipped on inland waterways via barge. Jack contends there is less chance of an accident on the river compared to roadways. “There are hydrocarbons on the river all day long,” Jack said in terms of coal and gasoline shipments. “What will be going out on our barges is non-hazardous.”

Though GreenHunter’s recycling process removes the suspended solids from the frack water, Jack admits trace amounts of chemicals and salts will remain in the water. Though radium and uranium are considered radioactive, he said these elements will be minuscule in volume. He said the Coast Guard will eventually allow the Marcellus and Utica frack waste to be barged, noting, “It is not a matter of if, but when.”

However, residents need not fear huge amounts of barge traffic, as Jack estimates only one such vessel will leave the Warwood dock each week.

Global Infrastructure Partners Acquires Chesapeake Midstream Interest

Duane Nichols — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 20:50:37 +0000

: Chesapeake Energy’s 50 Acre Campus

According to Pam Kasey, writing in the State Journal, Global Infrastructure Partners will purchase all of Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s ownership interest for $2 billion in Chesapeake Midstream Partners LP. This purchase will result in Global Infrastructure Partners, or GIP, owning 100 percent of CHKM’s general partner interest and 69 percent of its limited partner units.

The move is part of Chesapeake Energy’s sell-off of assets to cover its cash shortfall. According to Chesapeake’s website, Chesapeake Midstream Partners, or CHKM, is a master limited partnership between Chesapeake Energy, Global Infrastructure Partners and public unit holders. It has a strong asset base in the Barnett Shale near Fort Worth, Texas, in the Haynesville Shale in Louisiana, in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and in the Mid-Continent region of Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

On its own website, CHKM claims to be the largest gathering and processing master limited partnership in the U.S.

GIP is an infrastructure investment fund founded by Credit Suisse, General Electric Co. and an independent management team, according to Credit Suisse. In two other aspects of a larger transaction, GIP signed an agreement to acquire some midstream assets from Chesapeake Energy’s midstream subsidiary and Chesapeake Midstream signed a letter of agreement to acquire some Chesapeake mid-continent gathering and processing assets.

In the Marcellus, CHKM owns about 47 percent of the Marcellus gathering systems made up of about 200 miles of gathering pipeline.

The Wetzel County Action Group contested the building of the Pleasants and Miller compressor stations by Chesapeake partners in 2010. Access to this appeal no. 10-3-AQB is on the web site of the WV Air Quality Board.

MarkWest Energy Sets Long-Term Plan for Midstream Shale Gas Services in WV

Duane Nichols — Sat, 05 May 2012 00:12:38 +0000

From marketwatch.com, MarkWest Energy Partners announced two major agreements related to its ongoing development of the hydrocarbon-rich area of the Marcellus shale.

The first agreement is a long-term fee-based arrangement with affiliates of Chesapeake Energy to expand its Marcellus gas processing capacity in an approximately 185 square mile dedication area, which includes portions of Brooke, Ohio, and Marshall Counties in northern West Virginia and Washington County in southwestern Pennsylvania.

The second agreement is a long-term fee-based arrangement with Antero Resources to install significant gathering pipeline facilities in Doddridge and Harrison Counties in northern West Virginia.

MarkWest will expand the gas processing capacity at its Majorsville, WV, processing complex by 400 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) from 670 MMcf/d to approximately 1.1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). This expansion capacity is being provided in exchange for the significant dedication of acreage made by Chesapeake to the Majorsville processing complex. MarkWest will construct two new 200 MMcf/d cryogenic gas plants that are expected to be completed in late 2013 and mid 2014.

The gathering facility expansion to support Antero Resources will expand MarkWest’s existing gathering operations in southwestern Pennsylvania into a key part of West Virginia and includes the installation of two large high-pressure gathering headers and associated compressor stations in Doddridge and Harrison Counties, WV.

The Majorsville expansion will increase MarkWest’s total processing capacity in the rich gas area of the Marcellus to more than 2.1 Bcf/d, essentially all of which is supported by long-term agreements with MarkWest’s producer customers. All of the natural gas liquids (NGLs) recovered at MarkWest’s four large Marcellus processing complexes in southwest Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia are or will be connected through MarkWest’s extensive NGL gathering system for delivery to its Houston, Pennsylvania fractionation, storage, and marketing complex.

MarkWest previously announced that, to support its significant Marcellus expansions, it is constructing a second fractionation complex in Harrison County, Ohio, in conjunction with its Utica shale expansion and associated Utica shale joint venture.

Following the completion of its announced Marcellus and associated Utica gas gathering, processing and fractionation facilities, MarkWest and its affiliates will have the capacity to produce approximately 155,000 barrels per day (Bbl/d) of purity ethane and 120,000 Bbl/d of propane and heavier NGLs. This represents more than 10 percent of the total US supply of purity ethane and more than 5 percent of the total US supply of propane. In mid 2013, the Mariner West pipeline project is set for completion to deliver Marcellus ethane to petrochemical markets in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada.

SOURCE: MarkWest Energy Partners, L.P., adapted from wire services by www.frackcheckwv.net

Draft General Stormwater Permit Offerred by WV-DEP for Oil & Gas Industry

Duane Nichols — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 10:34:48 +0000

: WV-DEP Building

Public comment is invited until April 9^th on a proposed general stormwater permit for oil and gas activities associated with exploration, production, processing or treatment operations or transmission facilities that disturb one acre of land area or more. While this does not apply to drilling pads, it does cover pipelines where substantial acreage can be involved, as recently reported.

This draft permit is based on the state’s existing construction stormwater permit but without any reference to the federal law that authorizes that, according to Scott Mandirola, Director of the DEP Division of Water and Waste Management. The authority for this is the state’s Water Pollution Control Act.

A public hearing is set for 6 p.m. on April 9, 2012, at the DEP’s Coopers Rock Training Room in its Charleston offices. Oral and written comments will be taken at that time.

Comments may be mailed to the Department of Environmental Protection, Attention: Tonya Ombler, 601 57th Street, SE, Charleston, WV 25304, or e-mailed to Tonya.K.Ombler@wv.gov. Correspondence should include the name, address and telephone number of the writer and a concise statement of the nature of the issues being raised.

Marshall County gets more Processing, Fractionation Plant

Nicole Good — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 04:59:47 +0000

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…