Booming fracked gas exports | Weekly Business Newsletter
The Mariner East Pipeline has sparked a boom in fracked gas exports from the Philly region.
The Mariner East Pipeline system, now completed, paid $24 millions in fines, and was three years late to the finish line. Now it’s driving up exports of fracked gas liquids from the Philly region.
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— Ezequiel Minaya(@zekeminaya, business@inquirer.com)
Nearly once a day last year, a large tanker sailed up the Delaware River and docked at Marcus Hook Terminal to take on a cargo of liquid fuel, produced mostly from the Marcellus and Utica Shale formations in Western Pennsylvania and neighboring states.
The fuels — propane, butane, and ethane — were destined for markets in Europe, the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, and South America, where they’re used for heating, motor fuel, and as raw material for petrochemical manufacturing. Almost all the products were piped into Marcus Hook via the controversial Mariner East Pipeline system, the fuel transportation network whose protracted construction was hugely disruptive along its 350-mile route but finally seems to be delivering on its promise as an economic engine.
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