Pierce Plant & Gathering System
Rimrock Energy Partners, LLC has begun construction on a new natural gas processing facility and extensive gas gathering system in Weld County, Colorado. The Pierce Plant & Gathering System will serve producers in the northwest portion of the DJ Basin’s Wattenberg Field.
Rimrock Energy plans to complete the facility in Q1 2019. The plant will provide customers with up to 200 million MMcf/day of cryogenic gas processing capacity and access to premium residue gas and NGL markets. The gathering system will initially consist of 30 miles of trunk line and a system of low-pressure gathering pipeline to deliver gas from producer locations to the Pierce Plant.
“We are excited to begin construction of our Pierce project in response to the growing need for midstream services in the northwest portion of the Wattenberg Field,” said Rimrock Energy in a statement.
Colorado’s outflow capacity
According to the EIA’s 2016 U.S. State-to-State Capacity data, the Rockies Express Pipeline carried 3,200 and 1,800 MMcf/day from Colorado to Wyoming and Nebraska, totaling 5,000 MMcf/day. The second largest exporting pipeline is the Trailblazer Pipeline at 816 MMcf/day from Colorado to Wyoming and Nebraska, totaling 1,632 MMcf/day. Major pipelines accounted for approximately 8,500 MMcf/day of Colorado’s overall outflow capacity.
The EIA estimates Colorado’s overall outflow capacity in 2016 to be around 11,937 MMcf/day, with Wyoming, Nebraska, and New Mexico as the top three receiving states. Colorado’s outflow capacity has hovered around 12,000 MMcf/day since 2007. For reference, in 1994 the outflow capacity was 3,062 MMcf/day and in 2007 it was 8,352 MMcf/day.
Colorado’s natural gas plant processing
Colorado processed 1,660,816 MMcf of natural gas in 2016, according to the EIA. In 2014, the DOE said that there were 43 natural gas processing plants in Colorado, accounting for 8% nationwide. Additionally, there were 32 thousand gas wells in Colorado, accounting for 7% nationwide. Interstate pipelines covered 17,760 miles with 23 local distribution companies.
