Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) LP said Monday that it would invest $1.5 billion for a new pipeline system and associated processing facilities in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale.

ETP said it has entered into long-term natural gas gathering, processing and fractionation agreements with privately-owned EdgeMarc Energy to serve the Canonsburg, PA-based company’s production in Butler County. ETP said it has purchased 20 miles of high pressure pipeline from EdgeMarc, and added that it would construct a new cryogenic gas processing plant at an undisclosed location in western Pennsylvania near Butler County.

ETP plans to construct an additional 100 miles of high pressure 24- and 30-inch rich gas pipeline that would originate in Butler County and extend to the company’s cryogenic plant. The Revolution Project would provide an additional 440 MMcf/d of gathering capacity in the region.

“This project provides us with an effective gathering and processing solution for our approximately 500 laterals that will be drilled to access rich gas from stacked Devonian and Marcellus shale formations located in Butler County, PA, and enables access to highly coveted markets for our residue gas and natural gas liquids (NGL),” said EdgeMarc CEO Chuck VanAllen.

Residue gas from the Revolution plant would be delivered to ETP’s 3.25 Bcf/d Rover pipeline, which is expected to be fully operational by 2017 and deliver gas to markets in the Midwest, Great Lakes and Gulf Coast regions (see Shale Daily, Oct. 31, 2014).

EdgeMarc has about 25,000 acres under lease in Butler County, where it’s drilled more than 20 wells to date. For ETP, which entered the Marcellus Shale in 2012 after its merger with Sunoco Inc., the project would bolster its presence in western Pennsylvania (see Shale Daily, May 11, 2012).

NGLs from the Revolution plant would also be delivered on Sunoco Logistics Partners LP’s Mariner East pipelines to the Marcus Hook Industrial Complex on the Delaware River south of Philadelphia, which is being repurposed for NGL storage, processing and distribution to local, domestic and international markets (see Shale Daily, June 4). As part of the Revolution project, ETP also said it would construct a fractionation facility at Marcus Hook to handle those wet gas volumes.

ETP said it expects the new facilities to be operational by mid-2017. The company added that the Revolution plant could eventually be expanded to accept third party gas.