FERC Friday approved two companion applications that will allow El Paso Natural Gas to modify its border-crossing facilities in Arizona to satisfy increasing natural gas demand in northern Mexico.

In one application El Paso, a Kinder Morgan pipeline, asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to amend and reissue three separate border crossings to increase the combined maximum daily export capacity to 446,000 Mcf from 208,000 Mcf of gas from the United States to two new power plants to be sited in Sonora, Mexico [CP12-7].

Specifically, the Commission granted El Paso the go-ahead to increase export capacity at its Douglas Meter Station to 117,000 Mcf/d from 78,000 Mcf/d; increase export capacity at the El Fresnal Meter Station to 199,000 Mcf/d from 50,000 Mcf/d; and raise the export capacity at the Willmex Meter Station to 130,000 Mcf/d from 80,000 Mcf/d.

As part of its Willcox Lateral 2013 Expansion Project, El Paso proposed no construction or modification to its previously approved, existing border-crossing facilities in the application.

In the companion proposal, El Paso seeks to modify existing compressor and facilities on the 61-mile Willcox Lateral upstream of El Paso’s border-crossing facilities [CP12-6]. El Paso’s existing Willcox Compressor Station in southern Arizona does not provide any compression for the Willcox Lateral. The pipeline proposes to reconfigure the compressor station from mainline service to lateral service to serve future power plants in the State of Sonora.

El Paso’s facilities are being expanded to accommodate two electric generation power plants that are being developed in northern Sonora. The first facility, the Agua Prieta II Power Plant, is being developed by the Comision Federal de Electricidad. Natural gas volumes to Agua Prieta will be provided by MGI Supply Ltd. In addition, Mexicana de Cobre S.A. de C.V. is planning to build a 500 MW combined-cycle generating facility in two stages at their mining facilities in La Caridad, Sonora.

MGI has executed a transportation agreement to transport 95,000 Dth/d of natural gas through El Paso’s Willcox Lateral for delivery to the El Fresnal Meter Station. Mexicana de Cobre executed an agreement to transport 90,000 Dth/d on the Willcox to serve its new power plant at the Douglas Meter Station, according to El Paso.

When the new incremental volumes are combined with the existing firm contracts on the Willcox Lateral, the total firm contract capacity on the lateral will be 291,286 Dth/d (106,286 Dth/d of existing capacity and 185,000 Dth/d of expansion capacity).

FERC denied El Paso’s request for a predetermination supporting the rolled-in rate treatment for the capital costs ($23.1 million) of the proposed expansion project into the existing Willcox Lateral rates.

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