The 356-mile Gulf Crossing Pipeline, a subsidiary of Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP, went into service last Wednesday at normal operating pressures of up to 72% of the specified minimum yield strength (SMYS). The new pipeline gives Texas and Oklahoma natural gas producers greater access to markets.

Anticipated peak-day delivery capacity for Gulf Crossing in July is estimated at 1.3 Bcf/d and is expected to climb to 1.4 Bcf/d, subject to receiving a special permit from Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to increase operating pressures up to 80% of SMYS.

“We have made significant progress on Gulf Crossing and continue to work very closely and cooperatively with PHMSA in order to obtain the authority to operate all of our major pipeline projects at higher operating pressures,” said Boardwalk CEO Rolf Galvert. “Remediation and testing procedures are continuing on all of our major projects and PHMSA retains discretion on granting additional approvals.”

Service beginning July 1 was for the following posted capacities:

In related action, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved Gulf Crossing’s request to bulk up compression on its new pipeline to add more than 670 MMcf/d of capacity.

Gulf Crossing, which will transport gas from supply regions in Texas and Oklahoma to the Perryville Hub in northeastern Louisiana, asked FERC to amend its April 2008 certificate so that it can increase the compression horsepower at its proposed Mira Compressor Station in Caddo Parish, LA, to 35,500 hp from the originally proposed 20,604 hp. The reconfiguration of the Mira station will increase Gulf Crossing’s firm transportation capacity to 1.726 Bcf/d from 1.05 Bcf/d.

In addition, Gulf Crossing said the reconfiguration of the Mira Compressor Station would permit Gulf Crossing to provide “short-haul” transportation from Bennington, OK, to a proposed delivery point with Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America upstream of Mira. The Commission approved Gulf Crossing’s request for an extension until June 2010 to construct and make the Mira station available for service.

Gulf Crossing is a 356.3-mile, 42-inch diameter pipeline extending from Sherman in Grayson County, TX, to an interconnect with affiliate Gulf South Pipeline’s Tallulah Compressor Station in Madison Parish, LA. It also has leased capacity on the Oklahoma intrastate system of Enogex and on Gulf South from Tallulah to an interconnect with Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s Station 85 in Choctaw County, AL, located at the terminus of Gulf South’s 116-mile Southeast Expansion, which went into service a year ago (see NGI, June 2, 2008). FERC approved the Gulf Crossing Pipeline project in May last year (see NGI, May 12, 2008).

©Copyright 2009Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.