Mariner East 2 NGL pipeline now in service

Part of the Marcus Hook oil refinery on the Delaware River. The Mariner East 2 pipeline is now sending natural gas liquids from Ohio east to the revamped facility. Photo: iStock.com/Johnrob

Energy Transfer LP’s Mariner East 2 natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline is now online, available for both interstate and intrastate service, the company announced.

The 350-mile NGL pipeline transports domestically produced ethane, propane and butane east from processing plants in Ohio, across West Virginia and Pennsylvania, to Energy Transfer’s Marcus Hook Industrial Complex in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, where the NGLs are stored for distribution to local, domestic and waterborne markets.

Marcus Hook is an old, revamped refinery on the Delaware River.

Mariner East 2 is part of Energy Transfer’s Mariner East system of pipelines designed to provide NGL takeaway capacity for the Marcellus and Utica shale production areas in eastern Ohio, West Virginia and western Pennsylvania.

The Mariner East 2X pipeline, which parallels Mariner East 2, is expected to be in service in late 2019, Energy Transfer says.

The Mariner East system will provide operational flexibility and enhanced security of NGL supply from producing areas to key markets in the region and beyond, the company adds.

According to a 2015 economic impact study by EConsult Solutions, the total impact from the construction of the Mariner East pipelines is estimated to be more than $9.1 billion in Pennsylvania alone. When complete, the projects will have provided more than 9,500 construction jobs per year for six years, with associated earnings totaling more than $2.7 billion, Energy Transfer shares in a press release.

Featured image: iStock.com/Johnrob