Another project proposal has joined the ranks of those who seek to carry natural gas liquids (NGL) from the Marcellus Shale to more lucrative markets as well as unlock the productive capacity of Marcellus rich gas. Unlike other projects on the board, this one has a marine component.

MarkWest Liberty Midstream & Resources LLC — a partnership of MarkWest Energy Partners LP and The Energy & Minerals Group — and Sunoco Logistics Partners LP announced a combined pipeline and marine project to take ethane from the Marcellus Shale Basin.

“We…believe the Mariner Project provides the most efficient solution to maximize the value of Marcellus ethane, supports the development of more than 2 Bcf/d of Marcellus rich gas, and significantly accelerates the in-service date to transport ethane compared to other pipeline projects,” said MarkWest Energy CEO Frank M. Semple.

The pack of projects to serve the NGL needs of Marcellus producers — both gas processing and transport — has grown thick in recent months (see Daily GPI, May 28; April 27; April 21; April 19; April 8; March 23) and analysts have predicted that only one or two projects will ultimately be needed (see Daily GPI, May 10).

The Mariner Project of MarkWest Liberty and Sunoco is anticipated to have initial capacity to transport up to 50,000 b/d of ethane to Gulf Coast markets as soon as the second quarter of 2012 and could be scaled to transport higher volumes to support additional ethane production in the Marcellus region. MarkWest Liberty has been working with producers and petrochemical consumers since late 2009 and the project is supported by producers including Range Resources Corp. and Chesapeake Energy Corp.

The Mariner Project would include MarkWest Liberty making minor modifications to its processing facilities to recover sufficient ethane to allow the residue gas to meet interstate gas pipeline specifications and installing additional facilities at its Houston, PA, processing and fractionation complex to separate the ethane for delivery to downstream Mariner Project facilities.

“Our existing Pennsylvania active and idle pipeline infrastructure is well positioned to provide an efficient solution for producers to move ethane across Pennsylvania to a Delaware River marine port to access multiple markets,” said Sunoco Logistics CEO Deborah M. Fretz. “The combination of MarkWest Liberty’s fractionation complex and Sunoco Logistics’ transportation system offers producers a higher value for their natural gas liquids by transporting only the ethane portion of the liquids and allowing the heavier liquids to remain in the Northeast marketplace.”

MarkWest Liberty also plans to construct a 45-mile pipeline from the Houston complex to an interconnection with an existing Sunoco Logistics pipeline at Delmont, PA. The ethane would be transported to an existing East Coast facility where Sunoco Logistics would construct refrigerated ethane storage facilities. The ethane would then be transported via marine vessel to markets in the Gulf Coast. In addition, the existing Sunoco Logistics pipeline crosses many of the large pipelines transporting natural gas into the Northeast, which would provide multiple ethane blending options, MarkWest said.

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