MarkWest Energy Partners LP and Antero Midstream Partners LP (NYSE: AM) formed a joint venture (JV) to support Antero Resources Corp.’s (NYSE: AR) incremental gas processing in the Marcellus, according to a Feb. 6 press release.
Antero Midstream Partners will give about 195,000 gross operated acres in Tyler, Wetzel and Ritchie counties, W. Va.,—its dedication from Antero Resources—to the JV.
The JV, which is owned 50:50 by MarkWest and Antero Midstream, will support Antero Resources’ NGL production at MarkWest’s Hopedale complex in Harrison County, Ohio. Hopedale currently has three units providing 180,000 barrels per day (Mbbl/d) of propane-plus fractionation capacity, and the JV is investing in 20 Mbbl/d of existing capacity there.
Antero Resources is supporting the JV through a long-term fee-based agreement.
The JV will expand processing infrastructure at its Sherwood complex in Doddridge County, W. Va., which is the single largest gas processing complex in the Northeast with six cryogenic processing facilities with total capacity of 1.2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d).
Expanding the Sherwood processing infrastructure includes three new JV processing facilities, totaling 600 MMcf/d of incremental capacity for Antero Resources. The press release said that two of these facilities will likely begin operations during the first and third quarter of 2017, with the third becoming operational during first-quarter 2018.
There could be development of eight additional processing facilities, in the Sherwood complex and a new location in West Virginia, the press release added.
MarkWest will continue constructing and operating all the installed processing facilities, and will also retain full ownership of the Sherwood complex’s first six.
MarkWest will initially contribute existing assets to the JV-- the three processing facilities currently under construction at the Sherwood complex and associated infrastructure. Antero Midstream will initially contribute about $155 million for its share of Sherwood processing assets and ownership of fractionation capacity at Hopedale.
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