EnergySouth Inc., a holding company for utility and storagecompanies in the Southeast, announced an expansion plan Friday forthe storage facilities of its subsidiary Bay Gas Storage Co. Theplan calls for an additional salt cavern to be developed, whichwill increase the total working gas capacity of the site from 2.4Bcf to 6 Bcf. An open season will be held from July 15 until Aug.31 to help assess the final size and shape of the expansion.

The storage facility is located near Mobile, AL, and currentlyconsists of a single 3.5 Bcf cavern, with direct connections toFlorida Gas Transmission, Koch Gateway Pipeline and Mobile GasService Corp., a utility subsidiary of EnergySouth. The injectionrate of 35 MMcf/d and withdrawal rate of 260 MMcf/d would increaseto 250 MMcf/d and 600 MMcf/d. The project could be complete bySeptember, 2001.

“Bay Gas Storage is located at the crossroads between thenatural gas production coming onshore in the central gulf coast andthe growing market for that gas in the southeastern United States,”said Bill Coffeen, vice president of corporate development forEnergySouth. “In that position, Bay Gas Storage customers can takeadvantage of opportunities on both the supply and the demand side.”

Bay Gas Storage is currently approved by FERC for “market-based”rates and will seek similar treatment for the expansion. Foradditional information on EnergySouth and its expansion of Bay GasStorage Company please contact Greg Welch at (334) 450-4749.

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