Westport, CT-based NGS Energy LP added to its portfolio of merchant natural gas storage facilities in the Gulf Coast, announcing last Friday that it obtained FERC approval for its Leaf River Energy Center LLC in Mississippi.

With final federal OKs for construction, NGS said it would start work on the salt dome storage facility, which is expected to have rapid injection and withdrawal capabilities in the heart of the confluence of major interstate gas pipelines.

NGS said it will ask the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for its authorization to begin construction of the storage facility and a related 43-mile pipeline infrastructure covering 400 acres in Smith and Jasper counties, MS. The facility is expected to be in commercial operations by the summer of 2010.

When completed, Leaf Rivers will have a 32 Bcf capacity, with a 1 Bcf/d injection capability and a 2.5 Bcf/d withdrawal ability.

Leaf River President Laura Luce called the facility “necessary and well positioned,” holding what she called the “interest and contracted capacity” that demonstrates “the market’s desire for a natural gas storage facility that can take or place gas in high volumes to multiple pipelines in an economic manner.”

Along with its multiple-turn firm and interruptible storage services, Leaf River will provide park-and-loan, hourly balancing and interruptible wheeling services at market-based rates, Luce said.

“Like our last project that was brought in on time and on budget, the Leaf River Energy Center will provide hundreds of construction jobs and high-paying operating positions that will benefit the local area,” Luce said.

NGS Energy said it now has assembled a portfolio of what it called “highly flexible” gas storage assets throughout North America. Its newly operational Tres Palacios Gas Storage in Matagorda County, TX, just received FERC authorization to operate the entire facility, including all of its pipeline interconnections. Other projects in various stages of development are located in Colorado and Louisiana.

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