Southern Natural Gas Co. (SNG), a pipeline subsidiary of El Paso Corp., last Monday asked FERC for authorization to place into service the Phase II facilities of its Cypress Pipeline project , an expansion of SNG that would extend from the pipeline’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Georgia to the Florida market. The request comes nearly a year after SNG placed Phase I of the expansion into operation (see NGI, May 7, 2007).

The new pipeline, when fully completed, will provide additional takeaway capacity from Elba Island, the company’s LNG facility near Savannah, GA. From Elba Island, the 167-mile pipeline extends the SNG system into southern Georgia and northern Florida and interconnects with the Florida Gas Transmission (FGT) system near Jacksonville, FL. FGT is 50% owned by El Paso.

This $320.8 million expansion will provide increased supplies and new diverse incremental gas sources to growing markets in the Southeast. The project received long-term commitments from BG LNG Services, Progress Energy Florida and the City of Austell, GA, prior to construction.

The Phase II facilities consist of a new 10,350-horsepower (hp) compressor station in Glynn County, GA, which would add an incremental capacity of 116 MMcf/d. “Construction of the Phase II facilities is now substantially complete and the compressor unit is undergoing precommissioning testing,” SNG told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). It requested permission to place Phase II into operation on May 1.

Phase III, which is scheduled to be in service by May 2010, will add an incremental 164 MMcf/d through additional compression. The facilities would include nearly 10 miles of 30-inch diameter pipeline loop on Southern’s Wrens-Savannah pipelines in Chatham and Effingham counties in Georgia, and two new 10,350-hp compressor stations in Liberty County, GA, and Nassau County, FL.

Phase I, the bulk of the project, went into operation in May 2007. It included 1) 166 miles of 24-inch diameter pipeline, extending from an interconnect with Southern’s existing Wrens-Savannah lines in Effingham County to an interconnect with FGT in Clay County, FL; 2) interconnection and measurement facilities with Atlanta Gas Light Co. (AGL) in Glynn County; Southern’s South Georgia facilities in Nassau County; JEA (formerly Jacksonville Electric Authority) in Duval County, FL; and FGT in Clay County; and 3) various associated facilities, including replacement facilities, at Southern’s Marietta delivery point to AGL in Cobb County, GA.

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