Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America (NGPL) has kicked off an open season for space on its Sabine Henry Hub Project for deliveries to a proposed new delivery point to be located in Cameron Parish, LA — the site of an existing liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and proposed export facility.

The pipeline, which is a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan, proposed the $8.6 million project after it received a request from a shipper, which NGPL declined to identify, for 225,000 Dth/d of firm capacity to transport gas to the proposed delivery point at Cameron Parish. The shipper has subscribed the entire capacity of the expansion for a primary term of 10 years and has agreed to bear the full cost of the project, according to NGPL.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regulations require a pipeline to hold an open season to consider competitive bids, even if a project’s capacity has been fully subscribed. And “part of the reason for the open season is to evaluate whether a bigger project makes economic sense based on the bids received in response to the open season,” Kinder Morgan spokesman Joe Hollier told NGI in an e-mail.

The open season is soliciting firm transportation requests for the 225,000 Dth/d expansion of NGPL’s capacity from receipts in the Henry Hub area to potential deliveries further west on NGPL’s Louisiana Line, he noted. Two potential receipt points in the Henry Hub area are Equitable Storage (Jefferson Island) and Sabine Henry Hub.

In addition, as part of the expansion, new meter facilities would be installed at the the interconnection between NGPL and Sabine Henry Hub to allow the bi-directional flow of up to 500,000 Dth/d in each direction.

The “purpose of this project is to expand NGPL’s ability to access supply in the Henry Hub area for delivery west to various markets in Louisiana and beyond…There are several projects in the Louisiana Gulf Coast areas that have expressed interest in gas supplies from the Henry Hub area,” Hollier said. The Sabine Henry Hub Project is expected to be in service by Oct. 1, 2015.

The open season would run through Oct. 15.

Sempra Energy has entered into agreements with Japanese industrial giants Mitsubishi Corp. and Mitsui & Co. Ltd., and a subsidiary of GDF Suez SA to develop and construct proposed $6 billion liquefaction facilities at Cameron to export LNG (see Daily GPI, April 18).

The liquefaction facility would use Cameron LNG’s existing facilities, including two marine berths capable of accommodating Q-Flex sized LNG ships, three LNG storage tanks of 480,000 cubic meters and vaporization capability for regasification services of 1.5 Bcf/d.

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