Independent Gas Storage developer NGS Energy will develop a major transportation and storage hub from Perryville to Delhi in Northeast Louisiana, the company said Thursday. The new hub, the Gulf Coast Connector, is expected to connect the prolific Barnett Shale gas play to higher valued markets through interconnections with up to 13 interstate and intrastate pipelines.

The Gulf Coast Connector hub line will extend about 40 miles, fully looped, with a capacity of up to 2 Bcf/d, a spokesperson said. The company, which has control over several salt domes in the area, is not yet revealing how much storage will be developed. A nonbinding open season for capacity at Gulf Coast Connector will be held in February.

Plans are for the super connector line to have interconnections with existing pipes: ANR, Columbia Gulf, Mississippi River Transmission, Tennessee, Texas Eastern, Texas Gas, Trunkline and Southern Natural. Also, it would connect with two new expansions: Centerpoint’s Carthage to Perryville line and Gulf South’s East Texas to Mississippi Expansion, as well as three proposed pipelines: Kinder Morgan’s Midcontinent Express, Boardwalk Gulf Crossing and the Southeast Supply Header.

Gulf Coast Connector will utilize salt storage caverns to provide a full menu of highly flexible storage and hub related services, the company said. It also will offer firm transportation and wheeling services on the system, independent of storage.

The project will file an application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in early 2008, targeting a mid-2009 in-service date for firm transportation and early 2010 in-service date for firm storage.

For information contact Laura Luce at lluce@ngsenergy.com or Ashlee Fox at ashlee@ngsenergy.com, (203) 557-4264.

Gulf Coast Connector is a wholly owned subsidiary of NGS Energy, the parent company of three gas storage facilities including Tres Palacios Gas Storage in Southeast Texas, Leaf River Energy Center in Eastern Mississippi and Windy Hill Gas Storage in Northern Colorado.

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