Philadelphia reaping benefits of gas boom
Bryan Morreale with National Energy Technology Laboratory speaks during the Penn State Natural Gas Utilization Conference at Hilton Garden Inn, Southpointe, Wednesday.
Chris Koop, community relations representative with Sunoco Logistics Partners, L.P., speaks during the Penn State Natural Gas Utilization Conference at Hilton Garden Inn, Southpointe, Wednesday.
Bryan Morreale with National Energy Technology Laboratory speaks during the Penn State Natural Gas Utilization Conference at Hilton Garden Inn, Southpointe, on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2015.
In the bosom of Marcellus Shale, the reputed Energy Capital of the East, Philadelphia emerged as an emerging energy hub.
“People are coining this a ‘Philadelphia Story,’ but it’s actually a Pennsylvania story. It’s a broad story, for sure,” Mitchell Bormack said Wednesday morning.
Bormack, vice president of TRC Solutions, helped kick off the two-day Penn State Natural Gas Utilization Conference at Southpointe. Production, pipelines and – yes – the City of Brotherly Love were the prime topics addressed to an audience of 200-plus during an eight-hour program at the Hilton Garden Inn.
Standing at a podium about a mile above the natural gas-rich Marcellus, Bormack said Philadelphia’s energy status is well founded.
“This is the second-largest petrochemical center in the United States, next to the Gulf (of Mexico),” he said. “It’s long been that. Add in high-level education, craft and union labor – a highly trained workforce – a large buyers’ market and an abundant supply of gas, and you see how this can be a hub.”
Philadelphia is home to more than snarling sports fans. Sunoco Logistics Partners has been building the Mariner East I natural gas pipeline from the MarkWest processing and fractionating facility in Houston, Washington County, to a refinery in Marcus Hook, Del., a Philly suburb along the Delaware River. Mariner II is proposed along a parallel path, but starting in Ohio, and running through the West Virginia panhandle and most of Pennsylvania. It would likewise transport natural gas liquids.
Products then could be transported to states in the Northeast and Southeast, or be exported to Japan and Europe by ship – if the infrastructure is there.
Infrastructure, of course, is a major element in the energy equation, especially in Pennsylvania. Pipelines are needed to transport natural gas, so much of which was produced but not being used because of a lack of transmission lines. That glut led to a decrease in production, low gas prices and industry layoffs.
“It’s absolutely critical,” said Tony Cox of UGI Services. “Everyone knows how important natural gas is. But if you can’t move natural gas, you can’t use natural gas.”
Chris Koop was on hand to tout the Mariner East projects. He is the community relations representative for Sunoco Logistics in Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and Michigan. Koop is based in Pittsburgh and has a master’s in business administration from Waynesburg University.
“We’re the FedEx of petroleum products,” he said.
Koop wasn’t joking, though, when he said Mariner East I would be capable of transporting 70,000 barrels of natural gas liquids a day and Mariner East II about 270,000. NGLs are feedstock for many products, including plastics.
“We’re looking at 350,000 barrels a day,” Koop said. “There’s a lot of capacity, a lot of liquids and a lot of demands for those products.
“We’re excited about these $3 million projects, about the jobs that would be available. It’s a very large investment for our company and a very exciting opportunity for Pennsylvania.”
Natural gas, certainly, is the focal point of a natural gas utilization conference, but that wasn’t the only energy source discussed. Bryan Morreale of the National Energy Technology Lab in Morgantown, W.Va., addressed natural gas and other fossil fuels.
“Eighty percent of energy is produced by fossil fuels, and there’s no indication fossil fuels won’t play a significant role in our energy future,” said Morreale, technical adviser to Grace Bochenek, NETL’s director. He also subbed as a speaker for his boss, who was a last-moment scratch.
“Fossil fuels are in abundance,” he continued. “Oil, natural gas, coal, methane hydrates. And they’re not measured in decades, but centuries and millenniums.”
NETL is one of 17 Department of Energy national labs.
The Marcellus and Utica shales remain energy drivers, but Philadelphia – 300 miles east of Washington and Greene counties – has a presence that may be growing.
“You can’t help but think what could grow from a petrochemical center,” Bormack said. “The ripple effect could be enormous in that region.”
Day two of the conference will begin at 8:30 a.m. today.
A publication, Shale Daily, was distributed to all conference participants Tuesday, and it has an interesting article about EQT Corp.
The edition, published by NGI’s Intelligence Press Inc., said Pittsburgh-based EQT drilled its first Utica Shale well in Western Pennsylvania at Scotts Run, Greene County.
The publication reported the well was tested in late July and performed at a 24-hour rate of 72.9 million cubic feet a day. It also said in EQT’s first 86 days of production there, natural gas production was 2.6 billion cubic feet.
EQT has Utica properties in Southwestern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia, and Shale Daily said if the company’s Utica play there continues to be bountiful, that could affect EQT’s drilling plans in Marcellus.