Building

An unprecedented midstream infrastructure building boom offers the potential for tens of thousands of jobs and a $511 billion cumulative boost to the U.S. economy during the next 23 years, according to the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA). The infrastructure is necessary to deliver domestic natural gas, liquids and crude oil from domestic shale plays.

An unprecedented midstream infrastructure building boom offers the potential for tens of thousands of jobs and a $511 billion cumulative boost to the U.S. economy during the next 23 years, according to the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA). The infrastructure is necessary to deliver domestic natural gas, liquids and crude oil from domestic shale plays.

Gastar Exploration Ltd. has signed a lease with Bayer AG to drill Marcellus Shale gas wells on 1,400 gross acres in New Martinsville, a site that is being touted as a possible location for an ethane cracker in West Virginia.

As Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia battle it out for an ethane cracker, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) is touting the benefits of building such a facility at the other end of the Rust Belt.

Williams Partners LP (WPZ) said Thursday it has started up the Springville natural gas gathering pipeline, one of the building blocks in its plan to secure large-scale infrastructure in the capacity-constrained Marcellus Shale. Springville initially would help deliver 300 MMcf/d to Northeast markets.

French manufacturer Vallourec SA said progress is continuing on a $650 million steel mill it is building in Youngstown, OH to produce seamless pipes for use in hydraulic fracturing (fracking). The seamless hot rolling pipe mill of subsidiary V&M Star plans to create about 350 direct jobs and have initial production of 350,000 tons/year, but it can be expanded to 500,000 tons/year. Production is expected to ramp up in the next few months. According to Vallourec, the new mill would produce 2 3/8-inch to 7-inch diameter pipe for use in fracking operations. The company said it wants to support customers in shale plays across the continent; it has field offices in the Marcellus, Utica, Haynesville and Barnett shales and in the Piceance Basin.

Sasol Ltd. is considering building an ethane cracker and derivatives complex near its existing Lake Charles Chemical Complex in Westlake, LA. If built, it could be one of the largest ethane crackers in the country, with production of up to 1.4 million tons per year.

It likely will last only a few days before starting to diminish again, but heating load is building from the Midwest through a wide snowy swath of the Rockies, and the South and Northeast can expect to feel a similar chill as the weekend approaches. The result was a second day of firming cash quotes at nearly all points.

Tracking potential impacts of Marcellus Shale drilling activity on water quality will be the focus of a $750,000 research grant from the National Science Foundation, according to Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), which is to lead the collaboration.