The second annual Midstream PA was very informative with presentations from representatives from Sunoco Logistics, Williams, MarkWest, UGI, Southwestern Energy, McNees, Wallace & Nurick, Dawood Engineering, PA Department of Community and Economic Development and Penn State’s Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research. The combination of industry and government at the event gave the attendees a look at what is happening now, but more importantly what is coming in 2016 and beyond.
Some of the more interesting remarks:
- Everyone expects the big pipeline projects to continue with the only slowdown coming from acquiring permits.
- Some of the smaller midstream projects may get pushed a little.
- PA Pipeline Task Force’s comments:
- The primary focus of the report will be on gathering lines.
- The members of the task force are from the industry, business, government official from the state and local level and academia.
- The first draft of the report is due November 2nd. With the complete report due on February 2016.
- Businesses are encouraged to comment once the first draft is completed.
- It is not clear whether the report will result in now regulations or legislation, but you have to believe more regs are coming in some form.
- The Sunoco Logistics Mariner projects 1, 2 and 2EX are moving forward and represent a $3 billion investment by Sunoco Logistics in PA. To give you an idea of the size of these investments, it’s twice as large as the combination of the building of Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia and the Comcast tower in Philadelphia.
- The only rumor to come out of the seminar is that Shell is supposedly going to make “go or no go” decision on the cracker plant by the end of the year. (RUMOR)While much of the discussion of pipelines coming out of the Marcellus is about going to New England, Frank Nieto, Midstream Business magazine’s editor, commented that the biggest opportunities are in the Southeastern part of the U.S. where the population continues to grow and there is no opposition to pipelines. There is considerable natural gas need as the power plants in this region of the country convert to natural gas from coal.Nieto’s also stated that there is considerable discussion about shipping LNG and NGL’s to Europe, but Mexico will be the biggest importer of natural gas from the U.S. And it’s happening now.
From the different people that I talk to everyone seems to think the project will get the green light.
Joseph Barone
www.ShaleDirectories.com