MarkWest Liberty Midstream & Resources LLC said it has agreed with units of Chesapeake Energy Corp and Statoil Hydro ASA to process gas at its new Majorsville processing plant in West Virginia.

MarkWest Liberty, a partnership between oil and gas processor MarkWest Energy Partners LP and Midstream & Resources Funds, expects to complete the new 120 million cubic feet-per-day Majorsville cryogenic plant in mid-2010, it said in a statement.

We are pleased to announce these very strategic agreements with Chesapeake and Statoil that solidify Majorsville as our second major gas-processing hub in the Marcellus, Chief Executive Frank Semple said.

The Marcellus shale formation is a reserve estimated to contain enough natural gas to meet total U.S. needs for at least a decade.

The new Majorsville plant is planned to be constructed and located in the panhandle of West Virginia, the company said.

The agreements are in addition to an agreement MarkWest Liberty entered into earlier this year with Range Resources Corp to process gas at the Majorsville facility.

Shares of MarkWest Energy were up 2 percent at $21.50 Tuesday morning on the New York Stock exchange. (Reporting by Arundhati Ramanathan in Bangalore; Editing by Unnikrishnan Nair)

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