Prospective customers have stepped up for a sufficient amount of firm capacity on a proposed 30-mile extension of the Central New York Oil & Gas Co. LLC (CNYOG) pipeline system during a nonbinding open season, CNYOG parent Crestwood Midstream Partners LP said Monday.

CNYOG owns the North-South and MARC I pipelines and the Stagecoach gas storage facility. The proposed extension (called MARC II Pipeline) would connect the CNYOG system to the proposed PennEast Pipeline, which itself would provide an interconnect to Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co. LLC’s (Transco) Leidy Line and Transco’s proposed Atlantic Sunrise Expansion Project in Luzerne County, PA.

The 100-mile PennEast would begin in Luzerne County in northeastern Pennsylvania and end at Transco’s Trenton-Woodbury interconnection in New Jersey. It is a project of AGL Resources; NJR Pipeline Co., a subsidiary of New Jersey Resources; South Jersey Industries; and UGI Energy Services, a subsidiary of UGI Corp. (see Shale Daily, Sept. 5; Aug. 12).

In February Transco said it had binding commitments from nine shippers for 100% of 1.7 million Dth/d of firm capacity on Atlantic Sunrise, which would connect supplies in northeastern Pennsylvania with demand centers on the Atlantic Seaboard. (see Shale Daily, April 11).

Crestwood said the MARC II open season garnered more than 700 MMcf/d of nonbinding interest.

“The MARC II Pipeline would provide additional market access for gas received from multiple receipt points into the existing CNYOG system, including the Stagecoach storage facility, major gathering systems owned by Southwestern Energy and Access Midstream Partners, and both the Millennium and Tennessee Gas Pipeline interstate natural gas systems,” Crestwood said. “CNYOG’s existing system has the capability to receive over 2.5 Bcf/d of Marcellus supply and is in the process of adding a third interconnect with Access Midstream Partners’ gathering system in 2015 that will expand its total Marcellus supply access to approximately 3.3 Bcf/d.”

Crestwood said it plans to conduct a binding open season for the MARC II Pipeline in early November.

“The MARC II Pipeline project will provide an important and cost-effective link between abundant regional supplies of natural gas in North-Central Pennsylvania and growing demand in the Mid-Atlantic and New England markets,” said Heath Deneke, president of Crestwood’s natural gas business unit. “With connectivity into Crestwood’s existing CNYOG system, which currently receives more than 1.7 Bcf/d of natural gas and will have access to over 3.3 Bcf/d of Marcellus supply from various directly-connected gathering systems and Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s 300 Line, the MARC II Pipeline would provide a reliable long-term supply alternative to these markets.”

MARC II could be in service during the fourth quarter of 2017, Crestwood said.