Phase I of Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s Mobile Bay Lateralexpansion went into operation Aug. 1, providing 350 MMcf/d ofcapacity from the Outer Continental Shelf to Station 82 and 214MMcf/d onshore from Station 82 to Transco’s mainline near Butler,AL. July 1 was the initially targeted in-service date.

Phase I of the Mobil Bay Lateral expansion solved bottlenecksfor shipper Snyder Oil Corp. Snyder was able to increase Main Passgas production by about 60% to 300 MMcf/d gross and 120 cubicfeed per day net. With the new takeaway capacity in place, thecompany brought its Main Pass 261 A-3 and A-5 wells on line and isplanning to complete the A-4 well later this month. “We expect oursecond half production from the Gulf of Mexico to increase morethan 50 percent compared to the first half of the year now that theTransco pipeline is operational at Main Pass,” William G. Hargett,Snyder chief operating officer. “With the additional volumes beingplaced on production, we are confident in reaching our corporatetarget of increasing production by 40 percent this year from ourcore properties despite the one-month delay in Transco comingonline.”

Phase II of the expansion is expected to provide an additional135 MMcf/d of onshore capacity in November. Upon completion of bothphases, the project will transport 350 MMcf/d from the OCS to theTransco mainline and increase the capacity on the existing lateralfrom 520 MMcf/d to 784 MMcf/d.

Joe Fisher, Houston

©Copyright 1998 Intelligence Press, Inc. All rightsreserved. The preceding news report may not be republished orredistributed in whole or in part without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.