A U.S. subsidiary of Norway’s Statoil ASA has finalized an agreement to increase the availability of natural gas midstream services in the Marcellus Shale of northern West Virginia.

MarkWest Liberty Midstream & Resources LLP, a partnership of MarkWest Energy Partners LP and The Energy & Minerals Group, already provides midstream services to Statoil Natural Gas LLC at its Majorsville, WV, complex, which includes a 135 MMcf/d cryogenic processing plant.

The Majorsville complex is operating near capacity, but an expanded cryogenic processing facility with 135 MMcf/d of capacity is near completion (see Daily GPI, Sept. 28, 2010). Officials also are evaluating another expansion “to serve increasing production in the area.”

In addition to Statoil, the complex serves affiliates of Chesapeake Energy Corp., Chief Oil & Gas LLC, CONSOL Energy Inc./CNX Gas Corp. and Range Resources Corp. Chesapeake in January signed up for additional midstream services at the Majorsville facility (see Shale Daily, Jan. 21).

By mid-2012 MarkWest Liberty expects to be operating 745 MMcf/d of cryogenic capacity to serve Marcellus Shale producers. The natural gas liquids recovered at Majorsville are transported via pipeline to MarkWest Liberty’s fractionation, storage, and marketing complex in Houston, PA.