Spectra Energy received nominations exceeding 325,000 Dth/d for transportation services on Texas Eastern’s proposed TIME III expansion during a recent open season, the company said last week.

Capitalizing on the massive Rockies Express Pipeline (REX), the project would provide the Northeast with greater access to new volumes of gas from emerging Rocky Mountain supply and market-area storage. The binding open season began in October and concluded Nov. 16 (see NGI, Oct. 8).

“The excellent response to this open season clearly indicates that customers in the region are reaching back to get Rockies and other supply into the Northeast,” said Bill Yardley, group vice president for Spectra Energy.

The project would offer customers increased access to emerging supplies and premium markets across the Northeast and to numerous receipt and delivery points. This includes interconnections to the company’s Northern Bridge Project as well as several gas pipelines and storage facilities serving the region.

The TIME III open season follows Texas Eastern’s open season for its Northern Bridge Project, which received nominations for more than 300,000 Dth/d. Northern Bridge would move Rockies supply from Clarington, OH, to Oakford, PA, by November 2009. Both projects would build upon Texas Eastern’s footprint in the major Northeast markets of the Mid-Atlantic and New England states.

TIME III would utilize additional compression and pipeline looping to increase the capacity of the Texas Eastern system. Use of existing facilities, where possible, would minimize impacts to communities and the environment while optimizing the time required to permit and construct the project. It is expected to be placed into service in late 2010.

Also last week, Texas Eastern received authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to commence service on the Pennsylvania facilities of its TIME II expansion (see NGI, June 18) in Somerset, Bedford, Franklin, Bucks, Fayette and Adams counties in Pennsylvania.

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