New pipeline to carry volatile gas liquids through Sedgwick County
A 187-mile pipeline is being planned to cross Sedgwick County carrying volatile gas liquids, including propane and butane, from Kansas to Oklahoma.
County officials were briefed Wednesday about the plan by representatives of the Williams Companies Inc., a Tulsa-based energy giant with holdings in natural gas transportation and processing.
The pipeline will be called the Bluestem and will run from the town of Conway in McPherson County to Kingfisher County, Okla.
The line will mostly run across farmland, but will pass through the city of Cheney.
It will carry 225,000 barrels a day of pressurized gas liquids that are by-products of natural gas production, said Jay Vincent, a contractor for Williams who met with the Sedgwick County commissioners on Wednesday.
The county will have to issue permits for the pipeline to cross county roads. Commissioners asked several safety-related questions about depth and leak prevention.
The line will consist of 16-inch steel pipe and it will be buried 36 to 48 inches — deeper where it crosses roads and rivers, said Oliver Sutton, a right-of-way agent representing Williams.
Vincent said the pipeline will be protected by a cathodic system that uses a weak electrical current to prevent corrosion of the metal and will undergo frequent inspection from the air.
Pressure will be monitored 24-7 and there will be remote-control valves every seven to 10 miles, so a section of the line could be isolated and repaired if there ever is a break, he said.
And, although they’re called natural gas liquids, the substances to be carried through the pipeline actually are gases at normal air pressure, Vincent said.
“These are typically much different than an oil pipeline, much safer,” Vincent said. “They really don’t pose a threat to ground water.”
Commissioners also were assured that the company would bore the pipeline under all roadways so traffic won’t be interrupted during construction.
Williams has a plant at Conway that separates the volatile liquids from natural gas and stores them. The new pipeline will connect that plant to the Targa Grand Prix pipeline in Oklahoma, so the liquids can flow from there to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico.
Surveying is underway for the pipeline route and the company hopes to get the necessary permits by January. Construction is expected to be completed in November 2020.
Most of the construction will be regulated by the Army Corps of Engineers.
This story was originally published March 27, 2019 at 1:51 PM.
