NiSource announces pipeline connection plan

NiSource announces pipeline connection plan

NiSource Midstream Services announced today that it will connect its Hickory Bend Cryogenic Processing Plant under construction in New Middletown to a larger processing facility near Kennsington in Columbiana County with a 38-mile pipeline.

The pipeline will move natural gas liquids that Hickory Bend can’t process at its facility through a 12-inch line expected to cost approximately $60 million.

NiSource formed a partnership with the exploration and production company Hilcorp Energy in 2012 to construct the Hickory Bend facility, which is expected to go online by the end of this year.

Already, the $300 million facility consists of 55 miles of wet-gas gathering lines in Northeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania where Hilcorp has been actively drilling, or preparing to drill.

For now, Hickory Bend will serve only Hilcorp, but representatives at NiSource have said they are in discussions with other producers interested in utilizing the facility.

The new 38-mile line will have an initial transport capability of 90,000 barrels of natural gas liquids per day.

Those liquids will be transported to the Utica East Ohio Midstream facility near Kennsington, where a portion of the facility opened for processing in July.

At Hickory Bend, dry gas is separated from natural gas liquids such as butane, ethane and propane. Those liquids require further processing, or fractionation, which the UEO plant is capable of.

The connection with the UEO facility will enhance Hickory Bend’s gathering and processing capabilities and help the company to better market the plant in New Middletown as a full-service provider, said NiSource spokeswoman Sarah Barczyk.

Construction on the new pipeline is already underway and it’s expected to be complete in July 2014.