MarkWest sending Ohio natural gas west to Indiana and Illinois

Source: Columbus Business First

A natural gas pipeline to flow west from Ohio is expected to begin service this week.

The Rockies Express Pipeline’s Seneca lateral in southeast Ohio should will send gas to Indiana and Illinois, pipeline operator Tallgrass Energy LP said in a recent filing.

The lateral is a 24-inch diameter steel pipeline spanning 14.3 miles from the MarkWest Energy Partners Seneca processing plant in Noble County to its main pipeline. A new compressor station will make it possible to deliver the gas to Indiana and Illinois.

Eventually, the main pipeline could begin sending gas from Ohio’s Utica shale further west to eastern Missouri.

The Seneca lateral has capacity of 0.60 billion cubic feet of gas per day.

Sending gas from Appalachian drilling areas to the west has been ballyhooed in the industry, with proposed pipelines popping up, as I’ve reported.

Dublin-based Hull & Associates Inc. said in an August federal regulatory filing that the Seneca lateral’s estimated cost is $75 million.