Fayetteville Express Pipeline LLC (FEP) has filed an application at FERC to build an interstate pipeline project that would provide more takeaway capacity from Arkansas’ Fayetteville Shale play. Prolific production in the Fayetteville Shale, which is estimated to have natural gas potential of 20-30 Tcf, is the driver behind the pipeline project.

FEP, a 50/50 joint venture of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP and Energy Transfer Partners LP, proposes to develop an approximately 185-mile, 42-inch diameter pipeline that would extend from Conway County, AR, eastward through White County, AR, to an interconnect with Trunkline Gas in Quitman County, MS.

The pipeline would also interconnect with Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America in White County, Texas Gas Transmission in Coahoma County, MS, and ANR Pipeline Co. in Quitman County.

The FEP pipeline would have an initial capacity of 2 Bcf/d. With regulatory approvals the $1.3 billion project could be in service by late 2010 or early 2011. FEP has secured binding 10-year commitments for 1.575 million Dth/d, including 1.2 million Dth/d from Southwestern Energy Services, a subsidiary of Southwestern Energy Co., and 375,000 Dth/d with an option for an additional 125,000 Dth/d from Chesapeake Energy Marketing Inc., an affiliate of Chesapeake Energy Corp.

Texas Gas Transmission, a pipeline subsidiary of Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP, already has two pipes — the Fayetteville Lateral and Greenville Lateral — providing takeaway capacity from the Fayetteville Shale play in north-central Arkansas. They currently are running at lower-than-normal operating pressures while Texas Gas assesses and remediates anomalies on a 20-mile section of the Fayetteville Lateral between Bald Knob, AR, and Lula, MS, a spokeswoman said.

The Fayetteville Lateral is the larger of the two, extending 166 miles from Grandview, AR, in Conway County to an interconnection with Texas Gas’ existing mainline system. In April FERC approved Texas Gas’ request to expand compression to boost capacity on the Fayetteville Lateral to 1.3 Bcf/d from approximately 800 MMcf/d, and to boost the capacity of the Greenville Lateral in Mississippi to 1 Bcf/d from 770 MMcf/d (see NGI, April 20). The Greenville Lateral consists of 96 miles of pipeline that runs from the existing Greenville Compressor Station to a new delivery point near the Town of Kosciusko in Attala County, MS. The compression expansion is due to be in service in 2010. Key shippers on the 36-inch diameter laterals are Southwestern Energy Services, XTO Energy Inc. and Chesapeake Energy.

©Copyright 2009Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.