Pipeline project set for 2016
It’s a natural gas pipeline called Rover, presumably because of its 700-mile stretch to reach big markets in the Midwest.
But its Washington County leg, despite its strategic location in the Marcellus Shale, will be a short one.
A 10.59-mile portion of a 711-mile natural gas pipeline project that will carry gas produced from the Marcellus and Utica shales to user markets in Ohio, Michigan and beyond, should begin construction in Smith Township early next year, an official with Energy Transfer Partners said Friday.
Grant Ruckel, senior director of government affairs, described the company’s Rover project to 130 members of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce during a breakfast meeting Friday.
While the project will be only a small fraction of the overall pipeline, its economic impact here will still be significant.
Ruckel said Energy Transfer will construct 10.59 miles of a 36-inch line that will originate at a compressor station it will build in Smith Township. Construction is expected to begin late in the first quarter of 2016.
The Pennsylvania line will carry gas from the station along 2.01 miles in Smith Township and another 8.58 miles in Hanover Township, before continuing across a portion of Hancock County in the West Virginia Panhandle and into Ohio’s Carroll County, where it will connect with a dual 42-inch pipeline that is carrying gas produced in southern Ohio and northern West Virginia.
The main lines, Ruckel said, will carry 3.25 billion cubic feet per day to markets in the Midwest, Great Lakes and Gulf Coast regions of the U.S. and into the Union Gas Dawn Storage Hub in Ontario, Canada.
While acknowledging that the $4.2 billion Rover project will help the region’s gas producers reach new markets – some 68 percent of the gas will be delivered to Ohio, with another 32 percent in Michigan – Ruckel said Rover alone won’t be enough to move the massive amounts of gas being produced here.
“There simply aren’t enough pipes” to move the volume of gas coming out of the Marcellus and Utica stratas, he said. “This is just the tip of the iceberg in needed pipeline.”
Energy Transfer, which was founded in 1995 in Texas, also owns Sunoco Logistics, which is building the Mariner East 2 and Mariner West pipelines across Pennsylvania to a refining hub at Marcus Hook. The company also owns 6,500 retail gasoline stations operating under the Sunoco label. It also recently announced that it is buying pipeline company Williams.
Despite its relatively small footprint in Pennsylvania, Ruckel showed figures that Rover’s 10.5-mile leg here will provide the Keystone State with $900,000 in sales tax revenue during construction, with another $1.3 million in property taxes.
During a question-and-answer session, he said Energy Transfer has a planned route for the Pennsylvania leg of the project. He said the specific route will become known once the company receives a construction certificate from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is expected in November.
Ruckel also said the Rover project will hire 100 percent skilled union labor, with Energy Transfer estimating the buildout will need 10,000 construction jobs. The company has estimated that figure will include between 150 and 300 construction positions in Pennsylvania, with about 30 to 40 permanent positions to be created throughout Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
According to Energy Transfer information, Rover will contribute nearly $1 billion in direct spending to the U.S. economy, with 76 percent of the pipe to be manufactured in the United States, as well as all compression assembly and packaging.
The company says more than $124 million will be made in direct payments to landowners for easements. Ruckel said about 80 percent of the pipeline will be buried beneath agricultural land.
Ruckel’s visit to the chamber was part of more than 1,000 meetings Energy Transfer has held over the past year across communities in Rover’s proposed footprint. The meetings have included the public, municipal and business groups, he said.