Source: Akron Beacon Journal
Texas-based Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP says it intends to add a second 12-inch pipeline to its previously announced plan to ship petroleum-based liquids through northern Ohio.
The additional line would transport natural gasoline.
The lines, dubbed Utica to Ontario Pipeline Access (UTOPIA) West and UTOPIA East, would run side by side along a 240-mile route from Harrison County through southern Stark and Wayne counties to Fulton County in northwest Ohio.
Officials said the pipelines would be built at the same time.
From Fulton County, UTOPIA West would carry natural gasoline through existing pipelines to Illinois, then another 1,900 miles to Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. That line previously carried Canadian propane to the United States.
UTOPIA East would connect with existing Kinder Morgan pipelines in Michigan. Its liquids, including ethane and propane from Ohio’s Utica Shale region, would be shipped to the NOVA Chemicals Corp. for eventual use as feedstock for producing plastics at its plant in Corunna, Ontario.
That pipeline, a $500 million project, was announced in December 2013.
The two pipelines do not require Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval because the new sections are entirely within Ohio. Only interstate pipelines require approval from FERC.
Approval will be required from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and several Ohio agencies.
Construction could begin in November 2016, and the pipelines could begin service in January 2018, according to a company fact sheet. The two pipelines would create five full-time jobs plus hundreds of temporary union construction jobs.