Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP’s Kinder Morgan Cochin LLC unit has agreed with NOVA Chemicals Corp. to develop a 210-mile, 10-inch diameter products pipeline from the Utica Shale to Michigan, where it would feed Kinder’s Cochin Pipeline.

The pipeline will access multiple fractionation facilities in Harrison County, OH, and feed the Cochin Pipeline near Riga, MI. From Riga, product will move east to Windsor, ON, via Cochin.

The proposed $300 million Kinder Morgan Utica To Ontario Pipeline Access (UTOPIA) project would transport previously refined or fractionated natural gas liquids (NGL), including ethane and propane. The pipeline is expected to have initial capacity of 50,000 b/d, which would be expandable to more than 75,000 b/d. A mid-year 2017 in-service date is anticipated, pending NOVA’s execution of a definitive agreement during a binding open season (which is expected in 2014) and regulatory approvals.

“This proposal will complement our existing transportation solutions for NGLs produced in the Utica, allowing producers to choose between mixed NGLs to the Gulf Coast or previously fractionated NGLs to nearby demand centers,” said Don Lindley, Kinder Morgan president of natural gas liquids business development.

The Cochin Pipeline is a multi-product pipeline consisting of about 1,900 miles of 12-inch diameter pipeline operating between Fort Saskatchewan, AB, and Windsor. Cochin currently transports propane and ethane-propane mix to petrochemical and fuel markets in Ontario. Construction continues on the Cochin Reversal project, which will move light condensate from Kankakee County, IL, which is west of Riga, to existing terminal facilities near Fort Saskatchewan beginning in July.

Separately, Kinder Morgan and MarkWest are pushing a project to construct gas processing and a 200,000 b/d NGL pipeline to the Gulf Coast, which would compete with a similar project proposed by Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP and Williams (see Shale Daily, Aug. 9).