FERC on Thursday authorized Columbia Gulf Transmission LLC to construct a pair of pipeline segments totaling 34 miles and a new 12,260 hp compressor station in Jefferson Davis, Cameron, and Calcasieu parishes in Louisiana.

The proposed facilities included in the Cameron Access Project (CAP) would have the capability to provide up to 800,000 Dth/d of additional firm transportation service from east to west on Columbia Gulf’s West Lateral Transmission System, enabling project shippers to access new natural gas markets along the Gulf Coast and elsewhere, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said. The project will cost an estimated $300 million.

When it applied to FERC earlier this year, Columbia Gulf said CAP would serve the Cameron liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal (see Daily GPI, March 18). Sempra Energy broke ground on the terminal last October, after receiving final authorization from the U.S. Department of Energy that cleared the way for it to export up to 1.7 Bcf/d of domestically produced LNG to non-free trade agreement countries (see Daily GPI, Oct. 24, 2014). The Cameron project is among the first movers to seek to export LNG from the Lower 48.

CAP pipeline construction would consist of 6.8 miles of 30-inch diameter pipeline loop and ancillary facilities in Jefferson Davis Parish, LA, and 27.3 miles of 36-inch-diameter pipeline and ancillary facilities in Jefferson Davis, Cameron and Calcasieu parishes, Columbia told FERC [CP15-109]. A 12,260 hp compressor station, designated as the Lake Arthur Compressor Station, would be placed in Jefferson Davis Parish.

The project would also involve changes to Columbia Gulf’s West Lateral system, which has traditionally flowed from west to east toward Rayne Compressor Station and Columbia Gulf’s mainline, then north to markets in the Midwest and Northeast. In recent years, changes in traditional supply sources have created commercial opportunities that require alterations in the direction of gas flow, the pipeline told FERC. “In relation to the West Lateral, this means gas transported through certain pipelines is required to flow from east to west…[B]y changing the direction of flow on a portion of the West Lateral, Columbia Gulf will provide shippers with a new option for transporting their gas.”