Attendees at Hart Energy's Marcellus Midstream 2012 Conference and Exhibition declared the event an unmitigated success. "I really enjoyed the conference. I thought the conference format was well laid out, great exhibitor area and excellent quality talks, with easy visual and very good sound quality. Hats off to a well run conference," said David Shaw, manager of business development for Factor Gas Liquids Inc.

The first Marcellus Midstream conference, held at the Westin hotel in Pittsburgh in 2010, sold out two months in advance for an attendance of 800, limited only by the venue's space. The second conference, in 2011, nearly doubled its size to more than 1,500 attendees when the show moved into the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. And this year, the third annual event surpassed the last with nearly 2,000 delegates and 200 exhibiting companies, representi ng more than 40 U.S. states and Canada and illustrating the desire by midstream operators in other shale plays to absorb the best practices at work in the Marcellus.

Some of the new trends revealed during the conference included the importance of safety procedures, the challenges of ramping up midstream infrastructure to get liquids to market, the uniqueness of each of the nation's shale plays, and the need for more gas-processing facilities as operators surge west into liquid-rich areas.

The conference kicked off under a sunny Pittsburgh sky with a well-attended safety workshop packed with data and analyses of best practices for HS&E programs relevant to upstream and midstream operators.

During the main conference, morning keynote speaker Mike Stice, chief executive officer of Chesapeake Midstream Partners, president of Chesapeake Midstream Development and senior vice president of natural gas projects for Chesapeake Energy Corp. noted that the midstream industry is challenged to keep up with producers working in both the Marcellus and Utica shale plays.

"We work at a very fast pace," said Stice. "In fact, the pace at which we work is not only unique to our industry—it is unique within our industry as well."

Gary Evans, chairman of the board and chief executive of Magnum Hunter Resources Corp., noted the need for constantly improving technology in unconventional plays due to their formations. "So, what are the similarities between all these shale plays?" The answer, he said, is that there aren't any. "We'll learn something new from every single well."

In an afternoon presentation, Chris Kral, manager of business development for El Paso Midstream Group, discussed his company's plan for a major, new and very large gas processing plant by saying, "This larger plant allows us to build economies of scale." Other operators plan to follow suit.

Meanwhile, Rodney L. Waller, senior vice president for Range Resources Corp., pointed to the fairly organized buildout of the Marcellus shale as a template for the coming buildout of the Utica. He cautioned against too many operators implementing midstream systems without networking, saying the play's midstream infrastructure could easily become inefficient and redundant without planned coordination. As a result, many of the operators and service companies discussed possible joint ventures and deals during the following cocktail reception.

Overall, many of the delegates said they had attended all three events to date and were pleased with the growth of the show, which they plan to attend again in 2013. For complete news and coverage of the event, please visit www.midstreambusiness.com and search with key words "Marcellus Midstream 2012."