Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP and Southcross Energy LLC said Tuesday they are working jointly to provide more infrastructure for natural gas producers operating in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas.

“We anticipate that portions of our newly proposed solution could be operational later this year and that both companies will seek to expand their pipeline capacity in this region,” the companies said in a joint statement. Financial details were not disclosed.

Under the plan, Boardwalk would modify an existing section of subsidiary Gulf South Pipeline’s 30-inch diameter pipeline from Refugio, TX, north to Fort Bend County, TX, so that the condensate-rich Eagle Ford Shale gas could be accepted into that pipeline segment.

Southcross Energy would connect its existing gathering facilities in South Texas to the newly modified Gulf South pipeline segment to transport the gas to four Gulf Coast processing plants currently served by Southcross, including its Gregory facility near Corpus Christi.

As production continues to grow in the South Texas trend (see Daily GPI, Feb. 22), so do midstream projects. Last month Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP and Copano Energy LLC advanced plans to create Eagle Ford Gathering LLC to provide midstream services to the shale’s producers (see Daily GPI, May 17).

Also last month Enterprise Products Partners LP and partner Duncan Energy Partners LP announced a plan to expand processing and natural gas liquids fractionation services at the Shoup and Armstrong facilities to serve Eagle Ford producers (see Daily GPI, May 13), one of several Eagle Ford-related projects that Enterprise has under way (see Daily GPI, April 28; Dec. 7, 2009; Sept. 16, 2009).

As interest in liquids-rich gas plays continues to grow, some have said infrastructure development will struggle to keep pace; however, one midstream executive told a Houston audience last week that the industry is up to the task of building pipelines, processing and fractionation capacity (see Daily GPI, June 14).

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