Ethane

The Geismar olefins plant operated by Williams northwest of New Orleans, which has been shuttered for almost a year, is scheduled to restart in June, with expansion plans back on the table, management said Thursday.

A startup company that launched plans in 2012 to develop a small-scale, regionally-focused ethane cracker in the Appalachian Basin continues to promote its project two years on, but even though more specifics have been released, the company still can’t say with certainty when it will break ground for the project.

Sunoco Logistics Partners LP said that as its former crude oil refinery in Marcus Hook, PA, along the Delaware River south of Philadelphia, transforms into a major East Coast export terminal, it could soon rival similar facilities along the Gulf Coast and provide a number of advantages to Northeast oil and gas producers.

Enterprise Products Partners LP said Tuesday it will build a fully refrigerated ethane export facility on the Texas Gulf Coast and that it has long-term contracts in pocket to support the project, which is to be the largest of its kind in the world.

Five years ago it was unthinkable that U.S. ethane supplies could be shipped overseas, but advantaged domestic natural gas supplies have opened new opportunities, an expert said Tuesday at the annual meeting of the Gas Processors Association in Dallas.

Rising shale gas supplies from the eastern United States took Ontario and Quebec by storm before a pipeline toll overhaul put domestic Canadian production back into contention to keep at least part of its former market share with mainstay natural gas customers.

Antero Resources Corp. said Wednesday it has signed an agreement with Odebrecht Organization to be the anchor ethane supplier for the Brazilian company's planned ethane cracker and associated petrochemical facilities in Wood County, WV.

With 2013 in the rear-view mirror, Range Resources Corp. plans to spend more this year on a continuing strategy aimed at growing reserves and doubling production every four years, as the company’s top executive believes the Marcellus Shale drilling program is still in the “early innings.”

Consol Energy Inc. said Thursday it has struck a deal to send ethane produced in the Marcellus Shale of western Pennsylvania on Sunoco Logistics Partners LP’s Mariner East pipeline for export to European cracker complexes.