East Daley Analytics is monitoring several infrastructure expansions in the Northeast that will increase regional ethane production. One of these, MPLX’s Harmon Creek III expansion, is a project without an identified market, though we can probably narrow down the options.
MPLX is building a 300 MMcf/d gas processing plant and 40 Mb/d de-ethanizer at its Harmon Creek complex in southwestern Pennsylvania. The expansion is backed by Range Resources (RRC) and would triple ethane production off an existing 20 Mb/d de-ethanizer at Harmon Creek. MPLX is targeting start-up in 2H26.
Range is a leading NGL exporter in Appalachia and recently contracted for 20 Mb/d of capacity at a new East Coast terminal. However, it is unclear how the additional purity ethane supply plays into the strategy, since the proposed terminal would only export LPGs.
According to EDA’s new Northeast Ethane Supply & Demand Visual and Data Set, the Harmon Creek de-ethanizer only ships ethane on Mariner West Pipeline, which delivers volume to NOVA’s Corunna cracker in Sarnia, Ontario (see dashboard from the Northeast Ethane Supply & Demand Visual displaying these assets). Mariner West competes with Kinder Morgan’s (KMI) Utopia Pipeline to supply ethane to the Corunna cracker.
KMI recently expanded Utopia to accommodate NOVA’s own 25 Mb/d expansion at Corunna, and NOVA has announced no other projects at the site. Could the Harmon Creek III project challenge Utopia and supply more ethane to NOVA? This could lead to pressure on shipping rates without another petrochemical expansion, though RRC may be looking to other markets for the ethane.
RRC uses Energy Transfer’s (ET) Mariner East pipelines to carry ethane and LPGs for export at the Marcus Hook terminal. Mariner East doesn’t connect to the Harmon Creek complex about 12 miles away, but companies could conceivably build an extension. Range could also reach the ATEX (Appalachia-to-Texas Express) ethane pipeline owned by Enterprise (EPD) with a pipe extension from Harmon Creek.
We also would not be surprised if companies eventually established a connection between Harmon Creek and Shell’s Monaca cracker. The Shell cracker has been plagued by operational issues, but is reported to be at full operations since early 2025. – Julian Renton Tickers: EPD, ET, KMI, MPLX, RRC, SHEL.
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