NGT&S and MarkWest Liberty are in discussions with a number of natural gas producers and intra-state pipelines regarding plans to provide new rich-gas gathering and processing services in association with NGT&S assets near its Smithfield, West Virginia, compressor station.
The gathering and transmission assets are part of NGT&S’ pipeline network and will serve producers in Marshall, Wetzel, and Doddridge counties in West Virginia. Natural gas will also be gathered through non-affiliated gathering systems in Marion, Harrison, Tyler, and Pleasants counties.
The affiliated and non-affiliated pipeline systems will deliver gas into Smithfield where MarkWest Liberty plans to install a 120 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) cryogenic processing facility as early as mid-2011 and could increase the capacity to approximately 240 MMcf/d by mid-2012.
MarkWest Liberty would complement these processing facilities with fractionation services provided at its Houston, Pennsylvania NGL fractionation, storage, and marketing complex to take advantage of the premium regional markets and to maximize the value of the producers’ gas.
The gathering capacity would be made available in the near future with access to NGT&S’ regulated transmission and storage services. A portion of the transmission capacity could be available for service as early as November 2010, with the remaining capacity available by April 2011.
Christopher Helms, executive vice president and group CEO for NGT&S, said: “With the significant increase in drilling activity and recent uplift in deliverability in the Marcellus Shale, there is an immediate need for capacity to allow producers to move their gas out of the basin and further develop the area.”
