FERC on Monday granted Cheniere Energy Inc. permission to place into service its Creole Trail Expansion Project, located in Louisiana’s Beauregard and Cameron parishes.

The project [CP12-351] calls for Cheniere Creole Trail Pipeline LP to construct and operate a new interstate natural gas pipeline, compression and related facilities in the two parishes, thereby enabling bi-directional gas flow on Creole Trail’s existing pipeline. Earlier this month, Cheniere asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to allow the project to go into service.

“This authorization is granted on the basis of our most recent inspection conducted on April 17,” Terry Turpin, director of FERC’s gas-environment and engineering division, said in a letter to Cheniere on Monday. “We find that Cheniere has adequately stabilized areas disturbed by construction and that restoration is proceeding satisfactorily.”

The project involved construction of the Gillis Compressor Station in Beauregard Parish, and the reconfiguration of three existing meter and regulation (M&R) stations to accommodate bi-directional gas flow and measurement, and increased capacity. Specifically, the stations are the Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Corp. M&R Station, the Trunkline Gas Co. M&R Station, and the Texas Eastern Transmission Corp. M&R Station, with the first two constructed on the Gillis Compressor Station site, while the Texas Eastern station is about one mile to the north.

The project also called for the installation of 200 feet of 42-inch diameter pipeline, a pig trap and associated valves on the existing 94.8-mile Creole Trail Pipeline to connect it to Cheniere’s Sabine Pass liquefaction project (see Daily GPI, April 7). The pipeline runs from the Sabine Pass LNG Terminal to near Gillis, LA.

Cheniere Creole Trail Pipeline LP is a subsidiary of Cheniere Pipeline Co., which is part of Cheniere LNG Inc., and which in turn is owned by Cheniere Energy Inc.