Open Season for Marathon Utica Build-Out

FINDLAY, Ohio — Marathon Pipe Line LLC and Ohio River Pipe Line LLC, divisions of MPLX LP, Monday announced the start of a binding open season to assess interest and solicit commitments from prospective shippers on the Cornerstone Pipeline and associated Utica Shale build-out projects.

The binding open season provides shippers the opportunity to secure priority and non-priority transportation service on these pipelines. It began yesterday and concludes March 13.

“The Cornerstone Pipeline and associated Utica Shale build-out projects will allow MPLX to provide transportation solutions from the Utica Shale area to a wide range of markets,” said Pamela Beall, MPLX president. “This open season offers multiple pipeline options leveraging new and existing pipelines to meet the needs of various producers and end users.”
The Cornerstone Pipeline would originate in Harrison County and deliver to Marathon Petroleum Co.’s Canton refinery and to the Ohio River Pipe Line East Sparta tank farm. It is designed as a 16-inch diameter pipeline system that would connect to condensate stabilization facilities, fractionation facilities, cryogenic plants, and future gathering and storage facilities. It will be a batched system with the ability to transport condensate, natural gasoline, diluents and butane, the company said. The in-service date is late 2016.

Marathon operates a storage and barge-loading operation at the Wellsville Intermodal Park in Columbiana County. Condensate from wells in the Utica is transported by barge down the Ohio River to a Marathon refinery in Kentucky.

Marathon Pipeline, as operator of Ohio River Pipeline, is also advancing various Utica build-out projects to provide service to additional markets beyond Canton. The Cornerstone Pipeline will deliver volumes into the East Sparta tank farm for transportation to additional markets via the Utica build-out projects, the company said. These projects connect many of the Midwest refineries to the Utica Shale production and provide the ability to reach refineries and pipelines in the Chicago area that supply diluents to western Canada. The estimated in-service date for all of the Utica projects is mid-2017.

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.

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