A. Lee Graham Reporter Williams energy company’s board of directors has voted to approve the Oklahoma City company’s planned Bluegrass Pipeline project. The natural gas liquids pipeline, expected to reach operation in late 2015, would connect the Marcellus and Utica shale-gas areas in the Northeast U.S. to growing petrochemical and export markets in the U.S. Gulf Coast. The pipeline also would connect the NGL supply with the developing petrochemical market in the U.S. Northeast. Williams and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP on May 28 formalized key joint-venture agreements tied to the proposed pipeline and related fractionation, storage and export projects. Phase one of the project would provide producers with 200,000 barrels per day of mixed NGL take-away capacity in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Phase two would increase capacity to 400,000 barrels per day to meet market demand, primarily by adding additional liquids pumping capacity. The pipeline would deliver mixed NGLs from those producing areas to new fractionation and storage facilities, providing connectivity to petrochemical facilities and product pipelines along the coasts of Texas and Louisiana. The Bluegrass Pipeline includes building a new NGL pipeline from producing areas in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania to interconnect with Boardwalk’s Texas Gas Transmission LLC system in Hardinsburg, Ky. From that location to Eunice, La., part of Texas Gas would be converted from natural gas service to NGL service. The joint venture also would include building a new, large-scale fractionation plant and expanding natural gas liquids storage facilities in Louisiana and constructing a new pipeline connecting these facilities to the converted Texas Gas line in the Eunice, La. area. Williams and Boardwalk also are exploring development of a new export liquefied petroleum gas terminal and related facilities on the Gulf Coast to provide customers access to international markets. Williams and Boardwalk expect the planned project to begin operations in late 2015, assuming all necessary conditions are met. Those include necessary or required approvals, elections, and actions, as well as execution of formal customer commitments. Williams, an energy infrastructure company, owns interests in or operates 15,000 miles of interstate gas pipelines, 1,000 miles of NGL transportation pipelines, and more than 10,000 miles of oil and gas gathering pipelines. More information is available at www.co.williams.com. lgraham@bizpress.net