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Energy firm axes Marcellus, Utica pipeline plans

Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register photo by Casey Junkins A Williams Energy employee works in the operations center at the Oak Grove natural gas processing plant. The company is suspending work on the Bluegrass Pipeline, which would have sent up to 200,000 barrels per day of mixed ethane, propane and butane to the Gulf Coast.
Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register photo by Casey Junkins
A Williams Energy employee works in the operations center at the Oak Grove natural gas processing plant. The company is suspending work on the Bluegrass Pipeline, which would have sent up to 200,000 barrels per day of mixed ethane, propane and butane to the Gulf Coast.

MOUNDSVILLE, W.Va. — Calling a project that would send up to 200,000 barrels of Marcellus and Utica shale natural gas liquids – including ethane – to the Gulf Coast daily “ahead of its time,” officials with Williams Energy Monday pulled support from the Bluegrass Pipeline.

In a company statement, Williams officials said they could not secure a sufficient level of customer commitments to justify building the pipeline at this time, though they continue exploring options for ethane, propane, butane and other NGLs.

Tulsa, Okla.-based Williams gathers and processes natural gas for multiple drillers at the Fort Beeler plant along U.S. 250 and at the fractionator south of Moundsville. The company plans to commission the Oak Grove facility in May.

Originally projected to be in service by late 2015, the Bluegrass Pipeline was a joint venture between Boardwalk Pipeline Partners and Williams. Bill Lawson, director of corporate development for Williams, and Michael McMahon, senior vice president and general counsel for Boardwalk, released a joint statement regarding the Bluegrass.

“While data show there will soon be a need for a large-scale solution like Bluegrass Pipeline to meet market needs, potential customers to-date have so far chosen to focus on local solutions,” they stated. “As a result, we continue to pursue support for the project, but we are exercising capital discipline and not investing additional capital at this time. In short, Bluegrass Pipeline appears to be a project that’s ahead of its time…

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