At a cost of $4.3 billion, the planned Rover Pipeline project will transport up to 3.25 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from the Upper Ohio Valley to northern Ohio and Michigan.
MOUNDSVILLE, W.Va. – Contractors are planning to build another 42-inch pipeline to send up to 3.25 billion cubic feet of Marcellus and Utica shale natural gas daily across Ohio for use in Michigan and Canada via Rover’s $4.3 billion project.
As Dominion Resources and its partners proceed with their $5 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline that will send natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica regions to North Carolina, the Rover pipeline is also taking shape. During a recent Marshall County Commission meeting, County Clerk Jan Pest said she received notice from Rover officials about the company’s work that will take place in the northern portion of the county.
“Pretty soon, we won’t have enough room for all these pipelines,” Commissioner Don Mason said.
Indeed, pipeliners are busy working throughout the Upper Ohio Valley. Some are installing gathering lines to connect wells to larger pipelines, while others build lines that will take the gas to processing plants. Still others are building interstate pipelines that will ultimately take the product to market.
According to the June filing Rover made with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the pipeline’s initial capacity would be 2.2 billion cubic feet of gas daily, but the amount could eventually expand to 3.25 billion cubic feet per day. The firm hopes to have portions of the pipeline system running in 2016, while others would come online the following year.
MarkWest Energy, Blue Racer Midstream and M3 Midstream operate several processing stations along the pipeline route. The proposed Rover project map shows:
From that point, the map shows the Rover Pipeline will cut northwest across the Ohio countryside until it reaches the company’s Midwest hub in Defiance, Ohio. From there, the line continues north into Michigan.
Information from Rover states the project will result in 30-40 full-time jobs, $100 million in payments to landowners for the right to place the pipeline on their properties, and about $1 billion worth of wages for the contractors building the project via 10,000 temporary construction jobs.
The company states the project will feature 194,000 horsepower at five new mainline compressor stations, as well as 38,000 horsepower at five lateral compressor stations.
Natural gas compressor stations are typically placed at 40- to 100-mile intervals along a pipeline that takes natural gas to market. Compression is required to get the gas to move through the pipeline. The natural gas enters the compressor station via the pipeline that is connected to gathering lines, which are connected to individual gas wells. At the station, the gas is compressed by either a turbine, motor or engine.
In numerous legal advertisements during the past few years, natural gas drillers and processors state that compressor stations have the potential to discharge various amounts of pollutants such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, methane and formaldehyde.
A mainline compressor would be on the main 42-inch line to propel the product toward its destination. Rover is set to build one of these in Carroll County.
Marshall, Monroe, Harrison and Noble counties will all get lateral compressors, which will help move the gas from processing plants to the main Rover Pipeline.
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