The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Tuesday approved a request by ETC Tiger Pipeline LLC, a unit of Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP, to place a 400 MMcf/d expansion of its system in service.

The proposed facilities — 20.5 miles of 42-inch diameter pipeline looping and 30,565 hp of additional compression — will provide firm capacity to meet the demand for takeaway service from the Haynesville Shale and Middle Bossier Shale production areas in northwest Louisiana and East Texas for markets in the Midwest and East. When the expansion goes into service, the total capacity of ETC Tiger will be 2.4 Bcf/d.

ETC Tiger previously said it was seeking to place the proposed facilities in service on or before Aug. 1 (see Shale Daily, July 8). The pipeline estimated the cost of the expansion at $193 million.

Petrohawk Energy Corp., the third largest acreage holder in the Haynesville/Bossier Shale formation, has entered into a precedent agreement for “essentially all of the additional capacity to be created by the expansion project,” according to the pipeline [CP10-459].

Based on company reports analyzed by NGI’s Shale Daily, Chesapeake Energy Corp. is the largest acreage holder in the combined formation with 515,000 net acres, followed by Encana Corp. with 350,000 and Petrohawk with 345,000.

ETC Tiger, most of which went into operation in December, is a 175-mile pipeline that provides takeaway capacity for the Haynesville Shale, Bossier Shale and Fort Worth Basin (Barnett Shale) production areas (see Daily GPI, Nov. 9, 2010). It originates near Carthage, TX, extends through the Haynesville Shale area and ends near Delhi, LA, with interconnects to seven interstate pipelines.