Following a successful open season conducted in May (see NGI, May 7), AGL Resources subsidiary Golden Triangle Storage Inc. has filed at FERC requesting a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity to construct and operate a proposed underground natural gas storage project with market-based rates to be located on the southern edge of Beaumont in Jefferson County, TX.

Through the $180 million project, which the company first announced in December of last year (see NGI, Dec. 11, 2006), the company said it plans to initially offer up to 12 Bcf of working gas capacity in two caverns and, depending on market demand, could gradually enlarge the two caverns’ capacity up to 16 Bcf in the future. The company also will build a nine-mile pipeline heading northeast from the storage site into Orange County to connect the storage facility with six interstate and intrastate pipelines.

Golden Triangle Storage said it expects to obtain Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and other permits in time to begin construction in early 2008. The first salt dome cavern is slated to begin commercial operations in late 2010 to early 2011, with a second cavern online in 2013.

“We completed a successful nonbinding open season with prospective customers at the end of May and the FERC filing represents another significant milestone in the project’s development,” said Dana Grams, president of Pivotal Energy Development, the AGL Resources department overseeing the Golden Triangle Storage project. “This facility is expected to enhance the region’s growing energy infrastructure at a critical natural gas crossroads.”

Golden Triangle Storage said the project will increase Jefferson County’s storage capacity by 80%, “enhancing the area’s position as a national energy hub and increasing the functionality of both its existing and planned energy infrastructure.” The project will be located on land on the far southern side of Beaumont on the site of old sulfur mines and near existing storage facilities. The project will also be conveniently located near natural gas supplies, including natural gas imported through area liquefied natural gas terminals, East Texas natural gas fields and offshore deepwater wells. A number of nearby pipelines can deliver that natural gas to customers in the region as well as to markets in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, the company said.

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