Marcellus Shale natural gas pipeline project in doubt

On February 2, 2012 — No comments

A $520 million pipeline project thought to have the potential to support 2,500 Ohio construction jobs may be dead.

The Ohio Power Siting Board, the body that regulates major utility projects in Ohio, rejected the application for the Marcellus Lateral Pipeline more than a year ago. Kinder Morgan, a pipeline developer, owner and operator out of Houston, has made no official moves on the project since it submitted that application in November 2010.

The 16-inch pipeline was to snake 240 miles under Ohio, from the West Virginia panhandle to a larger pipeline just west of Toledo. It was to carry natural gas liquids from the Marcellus Shale, a layer of rock rich in oil and gas that sits under much of western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and the border counties of Ohio.

Its path would have crossed 15 Ohio counties, including Sandusky, Knox, Crawford, Morrow, Marion, Muskingum and Coshocton.

Last spring, the Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune and Mount Vernon News quoted a Kinder Morgan spokesman as saying the project was still on and to expect construction by the end of 2011. The company would first need to get approval from the siting board, which it has not sought, according to a spokesman.

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