MOUNT VERNON — Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, which had planned to build a 240-mile pipeline across Ohio, has dropped its plans for the project.
The company’s Cochin Marcellus Lateral Pipeline would have started in Marshall County, West Virginia, and transported natural gas liquids from the Marcellus producing region of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio to the Kinder Morgan Cochin Pipeline in Fulton County, Ohio. That pipeline would carry the propane, ethane, butane and other liquids to processing plants and other petrochemical facilities in Illinois and Canada.
The pipeline would have crossed Knox County from southeast to northwest.
Company spokesman Alan Fore confirmed Thursday that Kinder Morgan was withdrawing its application to build the pipeline, which had been on file with the Ohio Power Siting Board for some time.
Last summer Fore was in Knox County explaining the project to audiences and telling them survey crews and company representatives would be coming through to obtain easements for the pipeline once they had completed the application process. The company was preparing additional studies and information requested by the board.
The process of obtaining easements, and possibly even a start to construction, was thought possible by the end of 2011.
Fore did not say why the company had decided to drop the project, except to say they had continued to evaluate the project and that “while we are still interested in the Marcellus shale, at this time we are withdrawing our application.”
He did not rule out Kinder Morgan being involved in future Ohio projects as the process of exploiting the Utica shale formation grows.
“We have a good history in Ohio,” Fore said, noting that Kinder Morgan is a transportation company, not a drilling company. “And we look forward to doing business there. ... We’re always looking at opportunities.”
