As part of a handful of in-service authorizations issued this week as the winter heating season kicks off, FERC has cleared Gulf South Pipeline Co. LP to start up additional compression capacity as part of its Coastal Bend Header Project aimed at serving liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports in Texas.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff on Tuesday gave Gulf South the go-ahead to place capacity at the existing Magasco and the new North Houston and Wilson compressor stations in Texas into service in Sabine, Harris and Wharton counties, respectively.

The project also proposes, among other facilities in Texas, the new 26,400 hp Brazos Compressor Station in Fort Bend County, which went into service this summer, and 66 miles of 36-inch diameter header pipeline in Brazoria and Wharton counties, which are south of Houston.

The 1.5 Bcf/d Coastal Bend Header is designed to transport gas to the Texas coast to serve the first two trains of the Freeport LNG terminal.

FERC on Wednesday cleared Gulf South to place into service its St. Charles Parish Expansion Project, which is designed to deliver 133,333 Dth/d to Entergy Louisiana LLC for a 980 MW gas-fired combined cycle power plant near Montz, LA.

The project proposes a compressor station, about 900 feet of 16-inch diameter pipeline and related facilities on the operator’s existing 24-inch Index 270 pipeline system in southeast Louisiana.

Meanwhile, FERC also gave WBI Energy Transmission Inc. the go-ahead Wednesday to start service on its Valley Expansion Project in Minnesota and North Dakota. The project includes 37.3 miles of 16-inch diameter pipeline between an interconnect with the Viking Gas Transmission Co. pipeline near Felton, MN, and a new compressor station near Mapleton, ND, tying into WBI’s Line Section 24.