The Sunoco refinery in Marcus Hook will process natural gas from the Marcellus Shale formation. The refinery had been largely closed, but had long been mentioned as a site for processing natural gas from western Pennsylvania.
Range Resources Corp.,Fort Worth, Texas announced one of its subsidiaries signed a 15-year deal for a pipeline, processing and shipping project at the refinery on the Delaware line. The bulk of the site is in Pennsylvania, with a tiny portion in the First State. Hundreds of construction and other jobs could result from the project, although a breakdown was not immediately available.
Jeff Ventura, Range’s CEO, said, “With the Mariner East Project, Range expects to have three significant options that together provide substantial flexibility for ethane and liquids transportation and marketing from our Marcellus operations. In addition, these projects are expected to enhance the economics of our core wet gas production and future resource potential value. The Mariner East Project will help drive our continued development of natural gas and associated liquids in southwest Pennsylvania, help provide the northeast United States with ample supplies of heating fuel, open the global natural gas liquids market for Appalachian producers and help to serve as a building block for the potential expansion of the region’s petrochemical industry.”
The Mariner East Project would transport 65,000 barrels of ethane and propane from theMarkWest Energy Partners processing facilities outside of Pittsburgh, to Sunoco’s Marcus Hook terminal and dock facilities.
Once transported to the Marcus Hook facilities, the ethane and propane will be fractionated into purity ethane and propane for delivery and sale to domestic and international customers.
The Mariner East Project is expected to commence pipeline deliveries of propane in the second half of 2014. Ethane deliveries would start in the first half of 2015 after additional ethane facilities are constructed at Marcus Hook. In the interim, MarkWest is transporting on behalf of Range a portion of its propane sourced from their Houston processing and fractionation complex to the Marcus Hook facilities by rail.
