PITTSBURGH ̶ As the oil and gas industry focuses on how to recover from the downturn in crude prices, at least one midstream executive sees a silver lining in the shadows of economic uncertainty.

“It’s given us all a chance to catch our breath,” says Karen Kabin, vice president of business development for Kinder Morgan Products Pipelines. “We’ve been sprinting the last four years trying to put all these projects in the ground. Now is the time we can focus on cost savings, lowering our project costs, trying to reduce the volume requirements, to get these projects off the ground.”

Speaking to a crowd of 2,000 fellow professionals gathered at Hart Energy’s Marcellus-Utica Midstream Conference recently, Kabin, a mother of three children younger than 7, shared that she framed her perspective on the downturn around a phrase she borrowed from her sister-in-law: “You get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit.”

Initially satisfied to draw a presentation titled “To Market, To Market – Where will the production go?” from the catchy phrase, Kabin had second thoughts after her husband questioned whether it was a bad message because it made it seem as if little could be done during difficult times.

So, after rethinking the idea, she said, from the perspective of producers, Kabin challenged her audience: “If you don’t like the price you get, what are you going to do about it? What projects are you going to support? And how can Kinder Morgan help you meet your demands?”

From that standpoint, Kabin went on to highlight several projects Kinder Morgan Products Pipelines is proposing to handle the 1.2 million barrels of NGLs forecasted for the Marcellus-Utica region. Among the projects are Utopia East, Utopia West, Milford Diluent Rail Terminal and the UMTP pipeline.

All of the projects undergoing consideration, she said, have a common theme. “We’re using existing, unrealized assets and finding a place to expand them, either by looping them, by changing their service, and a lot of the projects I’ll speak about today are about optimizing our assets.”

The 320-mile, 12-inch Utopia East Pipeline, which will handle ethane and an ethane-propane mix, was announced by Kinder Morgan last year. Open season closed in October after the company received sufficient commitments to proceed with the project. The new build spans across Ohio, connecting with the existing Cochin Pipeline and continuing on to Windsor, Ontario, Canada, with access to the NOVA Corunna cracker, Imperial cracker and Pembina’s Sarnia storage facility.

The initial pipeline capacity of 50 Mbpd can be increased, with additional midpoint pumps, Kabin said, to 75 Mbpd.

“The other project we’re looking at is Utopia West,” Kabin said. “We used to call it the Cochin East Extension, but we’re now changing the name for simplicity.”

The proposed 450-mile, 12-inch natural gas pipeline would also stem from the existing Cochin Pipeline, extend from Harrison County, Ohio, to Illinois. It would be constructed at the same time as Utopia East.

“We will not build it without customer commitment, so that goes to the challenge,” Kabin told the audience. “Do you want another pipeline transportation option? If so, do something about it. Let us know what you want.”

Like Utopia East, the Utopia West Pipeline, with its 95 Mbpd of capacity, has an in-service date of Jan. 1, 2018, subject to receipt of sufficient commercial support during a binding open season.

The Milford Diluent Rail Terminal, meanwhile, out of Indiana, is an existing propane terminal, Kabin said, that has no source of propane supply by pipeline at the terminal any longer, so it will undergo modification to accept light condensate and natural gasoline.

“So, if you don’t want to make a pipeline commitment, and you are looking for another option out, this is an alternative to railing into Chicago,” she said about the site, which would have access to both CSX and NS rail facilities.

As for movement down to the Gulf Coast, Kabin said another takeaway option provided by Kinder Morgan is the UMTP Pipeline, which she said initially started out as a Tennessee gas pipeline conversion. “We looked at this a few different times,” she said. “Now we’re proposing a batched pipeline system.”

The pipeline will have 375 Mbpd capacity for batched or commingled condensate, propane and mixed butane, providing access to Mont Belvieu liquidity, pricing and connectivity to Gulf Coast facilities. It will also support local fractionation being built in the basin.

“It’s a reliable solution, and it gives producers the flexibility to change their product,” Kabin said.

Taking takeaway options out of the basin one step further, she said Kinder Morgan is also looking into the possibility of combining Utopia East, Utopia West and UMTP.