Monday, October 22, 2018

Gas pipeline plan scrapped amid Kentucky resistance

Kinder Morgan, one of the largest pipeline companies in North America, announced last week it is canceling the Utica Marcellus Texas Pipeline project. The $4 billion enterprise would have involved constructing about 200 miles of new pipeline from Louisiana to Texas, new storage capacity and laterals in Ohio, and converting 964 miles of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline to carry fracked natural gas liquids from the Marcellus/Utica shale region to the Gulf Coast, Marcellus Drilling News reports; the 70-year-old TGP now flows the other way and carries gas from the Gulf to the Northeast.

Kinder says it canceled the project because of not enough interest from producers, but Marcellus Drilling News notes that the project was more likely shuttered because of "stiff opposition from Kentuckians who don't like the idea of switching the pipeline to flowing 'dangerous' NGLs." The Tennessee Gas Pipeline passes through 256 miles of Kentucky.

"The project had drawn opposition in Boyle, Madison and other Kentucky counties as well as criticism from groups such as the Kentucky Environmental Foundation," Greg Kocher reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader. "Opponents were concerned about the risks of a 1940s-era pipeline carrying a heavier, more explosive substance."

Kinder says it will still try to reverse a large portion of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline, but will instead flow Marcellus-Utica natural gas south instead of liquids, Marcellus Drilling News reports.

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