Inergy LP subsidiary Inergy Midstream LLC announced last Wednesday that it is conducting a nonbinding open season for firm storage services in central New York.

Inergy is considering the development of salt dome caverns and a depleted gas reservoir for storage in Steuben County, NY, and surrounding areas with interconnects to Tennessee Gas Pipeline, Columbia Gas Transmission and potentially Dominion Gas Transmission, Empire Pipeline and Millennium Pipeline. The anticipated in-service date for the facilities is the fall of 2009.

Inergy will operate the depleted gas reservoir and salt dome caverns as an integrated facility offering a wide range of flexible market-based storage services including 10 day multi-cycle peaking to typical baseload type services, ratcheted and unratcheted with no seasonality requirements.

In September Inergy agreed to purchase the membership interests of Arlington Storage Co. LLC (ASC), the majority owner of Steuben Gas Storage Co., which owned a storage facility in Steuben County with approximately 6.2 Bcf of working gas capacity, maximum withdrawal capability of 60 MMcf/d and maximum injection capability of 30 MMcf/d (see NGI, Sept. 10). The storage capacity of that facility is fully contracted under long-term agreements with investment-grade counterparties and is currently connected to Dominion Gas Transmission’s Woodhull line (see NGI, Dec. 25, 2006).

In addition to Steuben, ASC owns the development rights to the Thomas Corners storage project, also in Steuben County. Upon its completion Thomas Corners will have a working gas capacity of approximately 5.7 Bcf and maximum withdrawal and injection capabilities of 100 MMcf/d and 50 MMcf/d, respectively. Inergy expects the Thomas Corners project to be commercially operational by the fall of 2009. Thomas Corners is expected to interconnect with Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co.’s Line 400 and Columbia Gas Transmission’s A-5 line. Connections to Empire Pipeline, Millennium Pipeline and Dominion’s Woodhull line are also under consideration.

In September Inergy said it planned to expand its salt cavern storage facility near Bath, NY, for high-deliverability service. Inergy intends to develop additional caverns with natural gas storage capacity of approximately 4 Bcf of working capacity, maximum withdrawal capability of 150 MMcf/d and maximum injection capability of 75 MMcf/d.

The open season will close Nov. 2.

For questions regarding the open season or for open season packages, call Ron Happach at (816) 714-5428 or e-mail rhappach@inergyservices.com. Open season packages can also be downloaded from www.stagecoachstorage.com or www.storageboard.com.

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