Okla. company breaking ground on W.Va. pipeline
Work is getting under way on a new $75 million gas pipeline through West Virginia.
The Business Development Corp. of the Northern Panhandle says Tulsa, Okla.-based Sheehan Pipe Line Construction broke ground Wednesday on a line running from the MarkWest natural gas fractionization plant in Houston to Hopedale, Ohio.
BDC Director Pat Ford told the Associated Press Wednesday the project will employ about 500 union workers, including welders, fitters and engineers.
Ford’s group also has a new tenant in the former Wheeling Corrugating factory in Beech Bottom.
Ohio-based Integrity Kokosing Pipe Line Services is creating a 2-acre staging yard for equipment, materials, office trailers and personnel.
Ford says Integrity has already begun construction of a natural gas pipeline near Wellsburg.
Its new 8- and 6-inch-diameter lines will gather gas from newly built well pads and feed it into existing pipelines.
MarkWest spokesman Robert McHale said Wednesday that when the project is completed, it will enable his company to supply ethane produced locally in the Marcellus Shale to the ATEX pipeline, which will carry it to processing plants on the Gulf Coast of Texas.
MarkWest also is building gathering, processing and fractionation facilities at Hopedale, which is in the Utica Shale play in Eastern Ohio.