MarkWest Energy Partners LP, Denver, has started up the 200-MMcfd Buffalo Creek cryogenicgas processing plant and associated high-pressure trunk line in the Granite Wash in Hemphill County, Tex.
The plant is supported by long-term, fee-based agreements with Chesapeake Energy Corp., MarkWest said.
As part of a gas processing agreement, Chesapeake dedicated 130,000 acres throughout the Anadarko basin.
Completion of the Buffalo Creek plant increases MarkWest’s total processing capacity in the Anadarko basin to 435 MMcfd at two complexes: Buffalo Creek and the 235-MMcfd Arapahoe processing complex in western Oklahoma. The plants are connected through MarkeWest’s rich-gas gathering system, which can gather 575 MMcfd.
MarkWest anticipates volumes at the new plant to ramp quickly, the company said, as Chesapeake has about 100 MMcfd of existing production MarkWest has begun to process.
Last year, MarkWest paid $245 million to a wholly owned subsidiary of Chesapeake for the Buffalo plant, 22 miles of gas gathering pipeline, and rights-of-way for about 30 miles of high-pressure trunk line. Also part of the transaction were an amine treating plant and a 5-mile gas gathering pipeline in Washita County, Okla. (OGJ Online, May 9, 2013).