New shale gas pipeline to skirt the Dayton region

Proposed pipeline could have local impact.

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By Steve Bennish, Staff Writer 1:52 AM Saturday, November 5, 2011

A proposed pipeline could transport a key industrial liquid from newly drilled Marcellus and Utica shale formations through Ohio and Miami Valley counties on its way to Gulf Coast petrochemical plants.

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. of Houston, Texas, which would build the pipeline, said Friday it has a long-term agreement with driller Chesapeake Energy Corp. to transport at least 75,000 barrels per day. It would handle ethane, a byproduct of natural gas processing, derived from the Marcellus and Utica regions in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio.

The pipeline proposal, the latest development in what advocates say could be a 21st century natural gas boom in Ohio, is the first that directly impacts the Miami Valley.

The projected route of the pipeline would take it through Butler, Warren, Clinton and Greene counties, said Enterprise spokesman Rick Rainey. It could be in service by early 2014. It would begin in Washington County, Pa., and end in Cape Girardeau, Mo., where it would connect with an existing Enterprise pipeline that is 650 miles long and ends in Texas.

About 4,000 temporary and full-time employees would be tasked with building it. It would track existing right of way the company already has through Ohio for two pipelines that now handle refined fuel, Rainey added. But new right of way would likely be purchased for it. The pipeline would not be placed in an existing trench.

It would transport only ethane, which is used to make ethylene. Ethylene is likened by chemists to bread flour for baking in terms of its usefulness in making chemicals. It’s a factor in more than 90 percent of manufactured goods.

It’s unknown whether the pipeline will eliminate the need to build a billion-dollar petrochemical “cracker” plant in the Midwest, Rainey said, but the company said that through connections at the partnership’s natural gas liquids storage complex in Mont Belvieu, Texas, “ethane production from the Marcellus and Utica shales would ultimately have direct or indirect access to every ethylene plant in the U.S.”

Natural gas cracking plants commonly cost $1.5 billion or far more to build and can process hydrocarbons into ethylene and other synthetics.

It would be a big deal for any Midwestern state to land a cracker plant, which could spawn 17,000 jobs, according to industry estimates. Advocates speak about the availability of inexpensive natural gas as a potential spark for the reindustrialization of Ohio.

James C. Johnson, senior vice president at Chesapeake Energy Corp., said, “Chesapeake has committed to 75,000 barrels per day over a five-year ramp-up period to anchor this critical infrastructure and has the ability to secure additional capacity in the project.”

Rainey said the company is already on the ground working with local officials and private landowners on pipeline details.

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