Nearly once a day last year, a large tanker sailed up the Delaware River and docked at Marcus Hook Terminal in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, 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.
For all of 2011, when shale gas extraction was picking up momentum in Pennsylvania, only one vessel departed Delaware Bay loaded with gas liquids, according to data supplied by the Maritime Exchange for the Delaware River and Bay, a trade group for the shipping industry. Gas liquids are a byproduct of natural gas production, as well as oil refining.
