The 512-mile Seaway Pipeline system loop (twin) pipeline from Cushing, OK, to the Jones Creek storage and terminal facility near Freeport, TX, is mechanically complete, according to its backers, Enterprise Products Partners LP andEnbridge Inc. The 30-inch diameter line is expected to more than double the Seaway system’s capacity to 850,000 b/d. The Jones Creek facility is connected to Enterprise’s ECHO crude oil storage facility in Houston by a 65-mile, 36-inch diameter pipeline. Construction of a 100-mile, 30-inch diameter pipeline from ECHO to Beaumont/Port Arthur, TX, is expected to be completed this month. Commissioning of the Seaway Loop (Twin), as well as the new pipeline from ECHO to Beaumont/Port Arthur, will continue throughout the third quarter. Seaway is owned by Seaway Crude Pipeline Co. LLC, a joint venture owned by affiliates of Enterprise and Enbridge.

Mississippi-based Ergon Inc. plans to expand its services in the Appalachian Basin with projects expected to be complete by 2016. The privately held company, which specializes in the storage, transport and marketing of oil and gas, among other things, plans to start up 10,000 b/d of condensate stabilization at its river terminal in Marietta, OH, by the end of this year. It will add another 10,000 b/d of condensate stabilization at a facility in Newell, WV, near the Ohio River by 2015. The announcement comes as condensate production is rising in the Utica Shale and operators look for more stabilization options to reduce vapor pressure and help market the product (see Shale Daily, June 25; March 10).

FERC has given Cameron LNG LLC the go-ahead to begin site preparation work for its planned Cameron Liquefaction Project in Louisiana’s Cameron and Calcasieu parishes. Cameron LNG has received all federal authorizations; committed to uniform traffic control, if needed; and plans to comply with environmental condition 20 (filing a traffic control plan) in October, prior to heavy project traffic affecting LA-27, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said in a letter dated July 9. Sempra Energy would have an indirect 50.2% ownership interest, with the remaining portion owned by affiliates of GDF Suez SA, Mitsubishi Corp. (through a related company jointly established with Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha) and Mitsui & Co. Ltd., each with 16.6% stakes. FERC approved the liquefaction project in June (see Daily GPI, June 19).

The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin has approved WE Energies‘ plans for an 80-mile natural gas pipeline connecting Tomah, WI, and Fairchild, WI. The $182 million West Central Lateral project would make it possible for WE Energies to provide gas to residential customers in Clark, Eau Claire, Jackson and Monroe counties and frack sand mining processors in Western Wisconsin. Plans filed by WE Energies last year indicated that the West Central Lateral would start from a proposed interconnection with the Viking Gas Transmission Co. pipeline in Eau Claire or Clark County and run south with delivery points to Wisconsin Gas’ existing distribution networks in Augusta, Hixton, Alma, Black River Falls and Tomah. The project is scheduled to be completed in November 2015.