Projects this month dot the map throughout the U.S., and target multiple areas of shale-play production. New announcements include pipeline and gathering system expansions, and several new processing plants as operators work to expand their capabilities in liquids-rich shale plays.

To that end, Plains All American Pipeline LP's wholly-owned subsidiary, Plains Gas Solutions LLC, recently announced plans to build a cryogenic gas processing plant with deep-cut ethane plus recoveries and specification product fractionation capability at its multiproduct Ross complex near Ross, North Dakota. Plains Gas Solutions expects the Ross gas plant to process 50- to 75 million cubic feet (MMcf) per day of natural gas, starting in second-quarter 2013.

In addition, Plains Gas Solutions recently signed a letter of intent with an anchor customer to provide long-term gas supply for the plant, and is negotiating with additional potential customers to size the facility. The Ross plant will produce stabilized condensate, purity ethane, specification propane, as well as a butane plus raw-make NGL stream, delivering pipeline quality residue gas into Williston Basin Interstate Pipeline Co.'s transmission system at the tailgate of the facility.

Elsewhere, MarkWest Energy Partners LP announced expansion plans for the Marcellus and Utica shale plays that include a 400 MMcf per day expansion of its Majorsville processing complex, bringing total cryogenic processing capacity at Majorsville to 670 MMcf per day. Natural gas liquids recovered at the Majorsville processing complex, and all other MarkWest processing complexes in the Marcellus, are transported via natural gas liquids gathering systems to the company's Houston, Pennsylvania, fractionation, storage and marketing complex.

Also, DCP Midstream LLC recently unveiled plans to build a 75 MMcf per day natural gas processing plant in Glasscock County, Texas, and associated low-pressure gathering system for producers concentrating on Wolfberry production in the Permian Basin. The Rawhide Plant and gathering systems are expected to be in commercial operation by the middle of 2013.

The new processing plant is the second phase of DCP's multiphase expansion program for the liquids-rich Permian. The expansion program began with the commitment to build the Sand Hills Pipeline, a new NGL pipeline that will provide take-away service from the Permian to fractionation facilities along the Texas Gulf Coast and Mont Belvieu.

View larger image