The first phase of an expansion of Kinder Morgan Inc.‘s (KMI) Texas Intrastate Natural Gas system — a 50-mile, 36-inch diameter pipeline — entered service at the beginning of September, KMI said in an email. The project cost about $164 million and provides more than 1 million Dth/d of transportation capacity to serve customers in Texas and Mexico. It is supported by commitments from Mexico’s Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) and with Cheniere Energy Inc. for its Corpus Christi, TX, liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal. (Phase 1 was previously announced as two separate projects: the Texas Intrastate Crossover and the Cheniere Corpus Christi LNG projects.) Phase 2 of the Texas Intrastate system expansion, which has an estimated cost of $161 million, is expected to enter service in late 2018 and is supported by a long-term commitment from SK E&S LNG LLC for service to the Freeport LNG export facility.

A transformer exploded and caught fire on Sunday at Talen Energy Corp.’s 538 MW natural gas-fired power plant in Southeast Pennsylvania. No injuries were reported. The explosion occurred outside of the the building. It took firefighters about an hour to contain the fire and the plant remains closed for an investigation into the cause, a company spokesman said. The Lower Mount Bethel power plant is located in Northampton County.

EthosEnergy has been awarded the operations and maintenance contract for the Caithness Moxie Freedom power plant in Luzerne County, PA. The 1 GW natural gas-fired power plant is being developed by Caithness Energy LLC and Moxie Energy LLC. The contract covers full care, custody, control operations and maintenance, including mobilization. Construction on the $800 million facility started in December and it’s expected to be in-service by 2018 (see Daily GPI, Dec. 18, 2015). EthosEnergy, which provides engineering, procurement and construction services to the power, oil and gas and industrial sectors, said its contract would create more than 20 full-time jobs in the region.

The dustup over the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission‘s decision to levy a fine against BP plc in a 2008 market manipulation case appears far from over. Last week BP filed a petition in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit asking the Court to step into the case [IN13-15] to review portions of July’s opinion No. 549 which imposed a $20.16 million fine and ordered BP to disgorge $207,169 (see Daily GPI, July 12; Aug. 13, 2015). And late on Monday, in response to a request from BP, FERC put the disgorgement on hold when it was discovered that the Texas Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program which was to receive the funds was not authorized to receive awards from FERC. The Commission also effectively tabled for now challenges to the main part of its decision by ordering rehearing for further consideration. BP detailed what it claimed were dozens of errors and inconsistencies that rendered opinion No. 549 “arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law” (see Daily GPI, Aug. 12).