Midstream to invest in Northeast Ohio

Staff report

Youngstown

The speakers at Thursday’s shale expo at the Covelli Centre had a lot to say, but John Bonn, president of NiSource Midstream Services LLC, said his company is preparing to make major investments in Northeast Ohio.

Midstream Services, a subsidiary of NiSource Inc., which is focused mainly on natural-gas transmission and storage, is in the early stages of establishing two hub facilities north and northeast of Youngstown for the gathering and processing of natural gas.

Those processes that occur from the well head to the transmission line are known as the midstream, and Northeast Ohio’s Utica shale play is so promising that Bonn said his Indiana-based company no longer could ignore the region’s potential for midstream services.

NiStream will construct new gathering-pipeline infrastructure and natural-gas processing facilities for a total investment of between $1 billion and $1.5 billion aimed at helping the delivery of Ohio Utica shale gas to multiple markets. Bonn said he expects some of the infrastructure to come online by the end of 2013 or in early 2014

The venture is a joint one with gas-production companies involved in fracking such as Hilcorp Energy and its affiliates.

“We want to be very well situated to meet the needs of producers in the area,” he said. “Our employees are your neighbors, and this is a core area for us. We’re very pleased with the response we’ve received from both the state of Ohio and local government.”

Bonn also said that Ohio’s Eastern border holds rich, wet gas with a higher BTU content, meaning it needs further refining at processing facilities before it can be transmitted by pipeline. He said that gas along the Ohio River is very dry and practically ready for pipelines when it comes out of the ground.

“This is why you’re seeing so much infrastructure activity in Northeast Ohio right now,” he said. “We’re very excited about the potential that this area holds.”