Already under construction in Ohio is the Appalachia-to-Texas (ATEX) Express Pipeline to transport liquids from the Utica shale well fields.
The 1,230-mile project is being built by Houston-based Enterprise Products Partners L.P.
Scheduled to begin service in the first quarter of 2014, the pipeline will carry ethane from Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia to near Houston.
ATEX would run 264.61 miles across 13 Ohio counties, entering the state on the east side at Jefferson County, passing through Harrison, Tuscarawas, Coshocton, Muskingum, Licking, Fairfield, Pickaway, Fayette, Greene, Clinton, Warren and exiting at Butler County north of Cincinnati.
In all, the 369-mile, 20-inch diameter pipeline would extend from southwest Pennsylvania’s Washington County to Seymour, Ind., where it would connect with an existing Enterprise pipeline that runs 861 miles through Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.
The existing 16-inch pipeline, which brings refined product from the Gulf Coast to Indiana, would be reversed to accommodate the new product.
At the Texas end, an additional 55 miles of new pipeline would extend from Beaumont to a natural gas liquid storage complex at Mont Belvieu.
The pipeline could transport up to 190,000 barrels per day of ethane, a liquid from natural gas drilling, to Gulf Coast chemical companies. Ethane is a key element in plastics.
Propane might also be added to the pipeline in 2015, under one proposal being studied by Enterprise.
Construction of the pipeline is expected to create 4,000 jobs.
Enterprise had announced in early 2012 that it had sufficient transportation commitments to proceed on the ATEX Express.
For more information, go to www.atexexpresspipeline.com.