Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) is holding a nonbinding open season for an expansion of 600 MMcf/d-2.2 Bcf/d from the Marcellus-Utica Shales into New England and Atlantic Canada.

The Northeast Expansion Project is being considered “in response to significant interest from local distribution companies, electric generators, industrial end-users and developers of liquefied natural gas projects” in the region, TGP said. Expansion service is expected to begin Nov. 1, 2018, subject to regulatory approvals.

“With Tennessee’s ability to expand its system to provide significant volumes at competitive rates, the project is of sufficient scale to address the long-term energy needs of New England and Atlantic Canada by providing access to abundant new supplies from the Marcellus and Utica supply areas,” TGP said.

“Recent initiatives by the New England Governors and the New England States Committee on Electricity [see Daily GPI, Jan. 23] suggest that adding these significant volumes to Northeast markets should provide sufficient incremental supply to lower the price of gas in New England energy markets and enhance reliability of gas and electricity grids.”

Calls for new capacity into New England were reinforced this colder than normal winter as spot prices into the region spiked high and stayed there, running to double and even triple digits at times.

Project facilities would include about 179 miles of pipeline from Wright, NY, to Dracut, MA, 50 miles of which would be constructed along the same right-of-way as TGP’s existing 200 Line system in New York and Massachusetts. Capacity subscriptions would dictate compression horsepower to be added. Based on shipper interest, the project could also be configured to add or interconnect with pipeline facilities from TGP’s 300 Line in Bradford and Susquehanna counties in Pennsylvania to Wright to provide more direct access to Marcellus and Utica production areas.

The project will provide transportation starting at receipt points at TGP’s existing interconnect with Iroquois Gas Transmission System and a proposed interconnect with Constitution Pipeline Co., both located at Wright, to delivery points in TGP’s Zone 5 and Zone 6, including TGP’s interconnect with the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline and Portland Natural Gas Transmission System’s joint facilities in Dracut.

The open season is scheduled to end at 4:00 p.m. CDT March 28. Details about the open season are available by contacting Becky Mack at (713) 420-4656 or email rebecca_mack@kindermorgan.com.

In December, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners completed a binding open season for incremental, north-to-south gas transportation capacity on the TGP system totaling 500,000 Dth/d (see Shale Daily, Dec. 20, 2013).

“The production of Marcellus and Utica is so huge that while there is need for more connectivity into the Northeast — particularly New England — the amount of production there has…in some respects, swamped the demand that can be sucked up by the Northeast,” Kinder CEO Richard Kinder said last month (see Shale Daily, Jan. 16). “And so lines like Tennessee are obviously going to become, in some respects, bifurcated lines; they’re going to move a huge chunk of gas downstream from the producing areas of Marcellus and Utica into the north.”