KMEP launches binding open season for Utopia pipeline

Sept. 4, 2014
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (KMEP) has launched a binding open season to solicit commitments for the Utica-to-Ontario Pipeline Access (Utopia) project that would transport ethane and ethane-propane mixtures from the Utica shale area. KMEP expects the pipeline to be in service by early 2018.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (KMEP) has launched a binding open season to solicit commitments for the Utica-to-Ontario Pipeline Access (Utopia) project that would transport ethane and ethane-propane mixtures from the Utica shale area. KMEP expects the pipeline to be in service by early 2018.

The project calls for KMEP subsidiary Kinder Morgan Cochin to develop, construct, own, and operate a 240-mile, 12-in. OD pipeline from Harrison County, Ohio, to Kinder Morgan’s Cochin pipeline near Riga, Mich., where the company would then move product eastward to Windsor, Ont. Plans to build the line were reported in December 2013 (OGJ Online, Dec. 18, 2013).

Utopia would transport previously refined or fractionated NGLs, including ethane and propane, with an initial 50,000 b/d of capacity that is expandable to more than 75,000 b/d.