El Paso told shippers on its southern mainline that on May 1 it will be adding 100 MMcf/d of new firm transportation capacity in Phase II of its Line 2000 Power-Up project, which was started in February with a 120 MMcf/d Phase I expansion. Phase III is expected to follow with another 100 MMcf/d.

The entire Power-Up project is designed to add 320 MMcf/d of firm capacity to Line 2000 to serve California and East-of-California customers. Line 2000, a converted oil line that runs from McCamey, TX, to Ehrenberg, AZ, on the California border, paralleling El Paso’s southern mainline, went into service in November 2002 with a delivery capability of 230 MMcf/d. The $173 million Power-Up expansion is adding 151,600 horsepower of compression at nine existing or new compressor stations along the line, bringing its total capacity to about 550 MMcf/d.

The additional capacity will help resolve the capacity battle on El Paso’s system between its East-of-California “full requirements” shippers, which serve Southwest markets, and contract-demand shippers that supply gas mostly to California. The additional capacity is being allocated to the full requirements shippers (Docket No. RP00-336-000, et al).

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