Meritage Midstream Services II LLC said operations on the first 108-mile leg of the Thunder Creek NGL Pipeline will begin in January. The pipeline is owned by Meritage unit Thunder Creek NGL Pipeline LLC and will serve producers in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin. It consists of 22 miles of newly constructed pipeline and an additional 86 miles secured through a long-term lease from Phillips 66. The pipeline has an initial capacity to transport 15,000 b/d, which Meritage expects to expand to 30,000 b/d as shipper demand increases. The pipeline originates at the 50 Buttes Natural Gas Processing Complex near Gillette, WY, and terminates at an interconnect with Phillips 66’s Powder River Pipeline near Douglas, WY. The Powder River Pipeline delivers NGLs to Phillips 66’s fractionation and refining complex near Borger, TX. The 50 Buttes Plant is owned by Thunder Creek Gas Services LLC, also a unit of Meritage. Meritage also said it will begin construction of a 140-mile extension of the NGL pipeline in early 2015 that will include an interconnect near Cheyenne, WY, into Overland Pass Pipeline Co.’s 760-mile pipeline, which provides NGL deliveries to the Midcontinent market center in Conway, KS. The extension is expected to enter service during the first quarter of 2016.