FERC Tuesday approved Dominion Transmission Inc.’s (DTI) application to build and operate facilities in southwestern Pennsylvania to provide 185,000 Dth/d of natural gas to the growing markets in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

DTI’s “Natrium to Market Project,” which would be in Pennsylvania’s Greene and Westmoreland counties, is to provide 185,000 Dth/d of firm transportation service from a receipt point located at an interconnect between DTI and the processing facilities of Dominion Natrium LLC in Marshall County, WV, to an interconnect between DTI and Texas Eastern Transmission in Greene County.

In order to accommodate the increased production of wet natural gas in the Appalachian region, DTI affiliate Dominion Natrium is proposing to build a nonjurisdictional processing facility in Marshall County (Natrium Plant) to extract and process the liquid hydrocarbons from the production and deliver the residue gas to the interstate grid at the Natrium interconnect, the order said [CP13-13]. In August Dominion transferred ownership of the Natrium Plant to Blue Racer Midstream LLC, a joint venture with Caiman Energy II LLC to expand services in the Northeast (see Shale Daily, Aug. 26).

Dominion also requested authorization to construct a 7,700 hp compressor unit and upgrade an existing measurement and regulations (M&R) station at its existing Cayne Compressor Station in Greene County, and to modify existing regulators and install a new jumper line and overpressure regulation at its existing J.B. Tonkin Compressor Station in Westmoreland County. The company has estimated the cost of the proposed facilities at $41.65 million.

Dominion said it has executed precedent agreements with four customers for the entire capacity to be created by the project: Chesapeake Energy Marketing, HG Energy LLC, BP Energy Co., and Total Gas and Power North America Inc.

FERC called on Dominion Natrium to complete construction of the proposed facilities and make them available for service within one year. According to Dominion, an incremental firm transportation base reservation rate calculated to recover the costs of the proposed project would be lower than its existing firm transportation base reservation rate.

The Commission approved Dominion’s request for a predetermination supporting rolled-in rate treatment for the costs of the project in its next general Natural Gas Act Section 4 rate proceeding, barring a significant change in circumstances.