El Paso Corp.’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. announced a new agreement under which Houston-based CDM MAX LLC will build, own and operate a 500 MMcf/d natural gas processing facility at Grand Chenier in Cameron Parish, LA, where several processing plants were badly damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Rita last September.

The new plant will provide gas dehydration and processing services to producers delivering gas into Tennessee’s Grand Chenier pipeline system, which includes numerous laterals primarily in the Gulf of Mexico and coastal marsh areas of Cameron and Vermilion Parishes. One is Tennessee’s Texas Deepwater Link Lateral which has the capacity to receive up to 400 MMcf/d of gas from HIOS at West Cameron Block 167.

CDM will build the new processing plant in two phases. The first phase will consist of the construction of a refrigeration facility with a capacity to process 300 MMcf/d of natural gas. The second phase will consist of the construction of a cryogenic expander facility with capacity to process 200 MMcf/d and the potential to expand to 300 MMcf/d. Tennessee said it expects CDM to have the first phase in operation by the end of this year. CDM intends to complete the second phase next spring.

Until the first phase is completed all gas delivered into Tennessee’s Grand Chenier system must continue to be nominated for delivery to the Sea Hawk Pipeline interconnect, a temporary solution orchestrated to provide producers with access to processing without a functioning plant at Grand Chenier. At Sea Hawk, producers can deliver their gas to Targa’s Lowery gas plant.

Once the new plant is operational, gas delivered into the Tennessee’s Grand Chenier system may then be nominated into the Tennessee 800 leg pool. Alternatively, gas may be nominated for transportation to any and all Tennessee delivery points, subject to the gas being processed to within Tennessee’s gas quality specifications at the new plant.

“The processing facilities in the western part of the state were pretty hard hit by Rita,” noted El Paso spokesman Richard Wheatley. “There were plants operated by BP and others that never came back on. This will greatly assist us in processing some of the [Tennessee Gas Pipeline] gas.” BP said in January that it would not attempt to repair its badly damaged 950 MMcf/d Grand Chenier plant.

In February, Tennessee held a request for proposals, inviting plans for construction of a new gas processing facility on its Grand Chenier System. The CDM project is the result of that RFP. For additional details on the plant or on processing services contact Jim Cantwell with CDM at (281) 379-1222 or jim@cdmmax.com. For other information contact Steve Adamcik of Tennessee at (713) 420-2750 or Steven.Adamcik@ElPaso.com.

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