Going two for two recently at FERC, Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP said it has received certificates of public convenience and necessity to construct its Gulf Crossing Pipeline project and the Fayetteville and Greenville Laterals. The projects are expected to provide an outlet for significant volumes of new gas production from the Barnett Shale, Caney Woodford Shale and other production areas in Texas and southeast Oklahoma.

With certificates in hand, Boardwalk said the construction of both projects — Gulf Crossing and the laterals — will “commence in the near future.” Service on the first 60 miles of the Fayetteville Lateral is expected to commence in the third quarter of 2008. Service on Gulf Crossing, the Greenville Lateral and the remaining segment of the Fayetteville Lateral is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2009.

The certificates come a month after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) staff prepared the favorable final environmental impact statement (EIS) for Gulf Crossing Pipeline Co. LLC and Gulf South Pipeline Co. LP, which are both subsidiaries of Boardwalk (see NGI, March 31). The favorable final EIS follows a favorable draft EIS on the $1.1 billion Gulf Crossing project in November 2007 (see NGI, Nov. 5, 2007).

Gulf Crossing plans to build a 356.3-mile, 42-inch diameter pipeline and associated compression facilities (100,734 hp) extending from Sherman, TX, to an interconnect with affiliate Gulf South Pipeline’s Tallulah Compressor Station in Madison Parish, LA. It also proposes to lease up to 165,000 Dth/d of upstream capacity on the Oklahoma intrastate pipeline system of Enogex and up to 1.4 Bcf/d of capacity on Gulf South from Tallulah to an interconnect with Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s Station 85 in Choctaw County, AL, located at the terminus of Gulf South’s 116-mile Southeast Expansion Project [CP07-398, CP07-401]. Some shippers are challenging the leasing of the Enogex capacity (see NGI, Oct. 29, 2007).

As part of the project, affiliate Gulf South plans to build approximately 17.8 miles of pipeline loop between its Tallulah Compressor Station and its Harrisville Compressor Station in Simpson County, MS, add 30,000 hp of compression to its Harrisville Compressor Station, and abandon by lease up to 1.4 Bcf/d of natural gas capacity to Gulf Crossing.

The companies said they expect the project to provide up to 1.732 Bcf/d of capacity. Devon Energy Corp., Enterprise Products Partners LP and Crosstex Energy LP are among the companies that have already committed to transportation capacity on the proposed line.

As for the laterals, Texas Gas Transmission LLC, also a subsidiary of Boardwalk, received a FERC certificate to construct 166.2 miles of 36-inch diameter pipeline (Fayetteville Lateral) extending from the town of Grandview in Conway County, AR, to an interconnection with Texas Gas’ existing mainline system, with 157.2 miles located in Arkansas and 9 miles located in Mississippi. The Fayetteville Lateral is designed to transport 841,000 MMBtu/d.

Texas Gas also received a FERC certificate to construct 96.4 miles of 36-inch diameter pipeline (Greenville Lateral) in Mississippi from its existing Greenville Compressor Station to a new delivery point near the Town of Kosciusko in Attala County, MS. The Greenville Lateral is designed to transport 768,000 MMBtu/d.

Texas Gas’ estimated cost of the proposed facilities at approximately $820 million. Texas Gas has a binding precedent agreement with Southwestern Energy Services Co. for the firm transportation of up to 500,000 MMBtu/d on the proposed Fayetteville and Greenville Laterals. The primary term is 10 years, and Southwestern will pay a negotiated rate. Southwestern would have the right to increase its maximum daily quantity by up to an additional 300,000 MMBtu/d.

The companies noted that natural gas production from shale plays in the areas served by their projects is projected to increase 35% by 2011.

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