Spectra Energy subsidiary Texas Eastern Transmission LP has finalized the design of its TIME III pipeline expansion project and is holding a second open season for transportation service, the company said last Monday.

Capitalizing on the massive Rockies Express Pipeline (REX), the project would provide the Northeast with greater access to new volumes of gas from emerging Rocky Mountain supply and market-area storage. The project would provide approximately 120 MMcf/d of additional capacity along a path from Oakford, PA, to Station 195 on the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp. system in York County, PA, beginning in November 2010, Texas Eastern said. TIME III is the fourth expansion of Texas Eastern’s system.

“The Texas Eastern projects are an important part of Spectra Energy’s strategy to efficiently and economically expand our systems to deliver greater volumes of natural gas into the Northeast,” said Bill Yardley, Spectra Energy Transmission group vice president. “Our efforts will increase the region’s access to more diverse and flexible supply while enhancing the deliverability of the interstate transmission grid.”

The TIME III project’s new facilities would involve the replacement of segments of the existing pipeline and construction of new pipeline along an existing Texas Eastern corridor.

A binding open season, which concluded last November attracted more than 325,000 Dth/d for transportation services (see NGI, Dec. 3, 2007).

Texas Eastern is holding a second open season and will accept nominations for transportation service through Friday, May 30. The company is offering shippers that submitted TIME III nominations the option to switch all or a portion of their nomination to the new delivery point. Shippers that did not participate in the previous TIME III open season also may submit nominations in this open season. For more information, contact Rob Hansen at (617) 560-1549, or rnhansen@spectraenergy.com.

Spectra Energy also said last week that it has signed a transportation agreement with ConocoPhillips to deliver up to 395 MMcf/d of Rocky Mountain natural gas from Clarington, OH, the eventual endpoint of REX, to the Northeast by November 2010 (see related story).

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