By Portia Williams
SOUTH SHORE, KY. —It was announced on Monday that MarkWest Energy Partners was sold to MPLX. The sale was valued at $20 billion. MarkWest owns and operates an LPG (Liquefied petroleum gas) products facility in South Shore, KY.
The MarkWest LPG facility in South Shore, KY, feeds MarkWest extraction plants located in Kenova, WV., Clendenin, WV and Boldman, Ky.The feedstock at the South Shore facility is fractionated into propane, natural gasoline and a number of other items that are shipped by truck, rail and barge to retailers, chemical plants and refineries. Annual propane production exceeds 200 million gallons.
According to www.mplx.com, “MPLX is a limited partnership formed in 2012 by Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) to own, operate, develop and acquire pipelines and other midstream assets related to the transportation and storage of crude oil, refined products and other hydrocarbon-based products. MPLX’s network of assets includes 2,900 miles of pipeline across nine states. Through MPC’s ownership interests in MPLX, it is one of the largest petroleum pipeline companies in the U.S. on the basis of total volume delivered. MPLX is headquartered in Findlay, Ohio”
Under the conditions of the sale MPLX agreed to take on MarkWest debt totaling $4.2 billion.
Once the sale is complete the two companies will form the nation’s second-largest processor of natural gas and largest processor and fractionator in the Marcellus and Utica shale.
“Our strategic combination with MarkWest would result in a large-cap, diversified MLP with an exceptional growth profile,” MPLX Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gary R. Heminger said in a released statement. “This transaction creates a tremendous platform for the combined partnership to continue to grow distributable cash flow and creates significant long-term value for the unitholders.”
Frank Semple, MarkWest’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, said long-term growth opportunities will emerge from combination.
“This powerful combination provides MarkWest with an investment grade balance sheet and a significant expansion of growth projects driven by MPC’s significant pipeline and refinery operations in the upper Midwest and the Gulf Coast,” Semple said.
No further details were provided about the merger.
For more information about MPLX visit www.mplx.com and for more information about MarkWest visit www.markwest.com.
Reach Portia Williams at 740-353-3101, ext. 1929, or on Twitter @PortiaWillPDT.
