Marathon to Build Shale Liquids Truck-to-Barge Facility on Ohio
River 3
The State Journal
9 October 2012
By Jim Ross
Marathon Petroleum Corp. announced plans Tuesday to build a
truck-to-barge loading facility at Wellsville, Ohio, to enable it
to take hydrocarbon liquids oil from the Utica Shale to
Catlettsburg, Ky., for refining.
The Catlettsburg refinery provides much if not most of the
gasoline sold in southern West Virginia, particularly in areas
near Huntington, along with other products derived from petroleum.
The refinery is about 10 miles from downtown Huntington.
Marathon signed a letter of intent with Harvest Pipeline Co. on
Sept. 27, agreeing to jointly develop infrastructure that will
facilitate transportation of hydrocarbon liquids production from
the Utica Shale in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. The
project will result in up to 24,000 barrels per day (bpd) of truck
unloading capacity and a terminal capable of loading up to 50,000
bpd onto barges on the Ohio River at Wellsville, which is near the
Pennsylvania state line.
Marathon already uses river transportation to deliver products
refined at Catlettsburg to terminals along the upper Ohio,
including the Pittsburgh area. The refinery receives crude
petroleum now from pipelines to the Gulf Coast and other points.
The proposed project includes modifications to Marathon`s existing
Wellsville river terminal to accommodate the additional volume for
loading onto barges. It also includes a new truck rack to be built
on property leased by Harvest Pipeline next to the MPC facility.
"With two of our refineries literally on top of the Utica shale
formation, we are committed to positioning ourselves as the
customer of choice for liquids production from the Utica," said
George Shaffner, MPC`s senior vice president of transportation and
logistics, said in a news release.
Shaffner added that the letter of intent with Harvest represents
the second investment MPC is making toward accommodating Utica
production, after its completion earlier this summer of a new
truck rack capable of unloading 12,000 bpd, expandable to 24,000
bpd, at its Canton, Ohio, refinery.
The project is anticipated to be complete late next year.