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A reader sent me a great Kinder Morgan presentation for the Minnesota Propane Association Meeting. The presentation is dated June 25, 2012; it was prepared by Karen S. Kabin, but it is not yet at the Kinder Morgan website, unless I missed it.
The Kinder Morgan Cochin Pipeline datapoints
- put into service in 1978
- runs from Alberta, Canada, southeast to Windsor, Ontario
- the pipeline runs diagonally across North Dakota, from northwest corner to southeast corner, right through the heart of the Bakken
- peak capacity was 124,000 bbls per day of light hydrocarbon liquids
- supported by a long-term (20-year) ethylene shipping agreement
- it also provided US market outlets for Alberta's excess ethane and propane
- interestingly enough, Canada's recent propane net export volume has declined significantly
- US deliveries of propane from Cochin's throughput: 28K bbls (2008) --> 16K bbls (2011)
- Alberta is also ethane short due to the ethylene plant expansions in 2000
- US NGL production is increasing due to unconventional shale
- Bakken and Marcellus already impacting the Cochin terminal markets on the east coast
- North Dakota propane production: 2010 avg - 12 mbpd; 1Q12 - 28 mbpd
- Tioga Hess in process of expansion; right on the pipeline
- Kinder Morgan will reverse the Cochin Pipeline
- light condensate from eastern end of the pipeline; transported to Alberta (Fort Saskatchewan)
- eastbound propane service will continue through March 2014, during the changeover
- by 2Q14, reversal -- light condensate only -- will begin at Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta
Kinder Morgan noted this in the summary slide: US propane production growth will replace historical Canadian imports
North Dakota's propane production increase of 15 mbpd between 2010 and 1Q12 is more than the Cochin Pipeline delivered to the entire US in 2010.
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The presentation also has a great graphic of ONEOK's new Bakken NGL pipeline.
The ONEOK Bakken NGL pipeline runs directly south from its Stateline I and II facilities (west Williams County, North Dakota) to the Overland Pass Pipeline which runs west of the Niobrara (Wyoming/Colorado) southeast to Bushton, Kansas.
The new Bakken NGL pipeline: initial capacity, 60 mbpd; expandable to 110 mbpd.
The Overland Pass pipeline is also being expanded to 255 mbpd to handle the additional 60 mbpd from the Bakken
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Note: KM used "bbls" in this presentation regarding propane (see earlier post/comment re: bbls and gallons when referring to NGLs; some vindication).
The number of NGL plants coming on line in the Utica and Marcellus is overwhelming the user capacities in the northeast. The oil sands need light hydrocarbons as diluent to get get the oil sands oil to a lower viscosity and pumpable, so the reversal is a perfect marriage.
ReplyDeleteI was the one that commented on barrels in the petrorefining vs gallons in chemical processing. My point was that downstream chemical plants don't generally use barrels while petrochem refiners do. When transferring between the two, either is acceptable. But when transferring to an end user that is crude oil producers (in this case), barrels will be used.
Thank you for expanding and taking the time to comment.
ReplyDeleteAs noted many times on the blog, I have/had little understanding of the natural gas industry. This all helps.
The numbers, at least to me, are quite amazing. Who would have ever thought so much NG/NGL activity in North Dakota?