Another piece of the massive Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) fell into place Monday. FERC gave REX the go-ahead to begin service at the Meeker Compressor Station in Rio Blanco County, CO.

With this step, nearly the entire REX/Entrega project, the westernmost end of REX, will be in operation, except the Big Hole Compressor Station [CP04-413]. REX has been granted an extension until June 30, 2009 to place that compressor station into service.

REX placed its 20,620-hp Wamsutter Compressor Station in service a little more than a week ago after receiving authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see Daily GPI, Dec. 17). The three compressor stations — Wamsutter, Big Hole and Meeker — make up Phase II of the REX/Entrega project.

The current capacity of the 327-mile REX/Entrega line is 1.5 Bcf/d, said REX spokesman Allen Fore. The throughput will increase to approximately 1.8 Bcf/d when all three compressors are in service.

The REX/Entrega project was approved by FERC in August 2005, and called for the line to be built in two phases. Phase I of the pipeline extends from the Meeker Hub in Rio Blanco County, CO, northward to the Wamsutter Hub in Sweetwater County, WY, and then southeastward to the Cheyenne Hub in Weld County, CO. This part of the pipeline was placed into service in early 2006.

With completion of both Phase I and II, the facilities are to connect at Cheyenne Hub with the 713-mile REX-West portion of the pipeline system, which extends to Audrain County, MO. There, REX-West, which is scheduled for interim service by Jan. 1 and full service in early February, will interconnect with a number of major interstate pipeline systems that would take natural gas eastward. The next leg of the pipeline, REX-East, would terminate at Clarington, OH. It currently is in the permitting stage.

The nearly 1,700-mile REX project is sponsored by Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP, Sempra Pipelines & Storage and ConocoPhillips. Kinder Morgan also operates the 317-mile TransColorado Gas Transmission system, which serves Colorado and New Mexico.

TransColorado Friday received authorization from FERC to begin service on its Blanco-to-Meeker expansion, and the company told NGI that start-up would be Jan. 1 on the fully subscribed system (see Daily GPI, Dec. 26). TransColorado’s project will support flows into the massive REX pipeline and permit TransColorado to transport up to an additional 250,000 Dth/d of gas from the Blanco Hub area in San Juan County, NM, through its existing pipeline to REX at an existing point of interconnection located at the Meeker Hub.

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