Enterprise Products Partners LP said Wednesday it’s planning to convert an existing natural gas liquids salt dome storage field in Mont Belvieu, TX, into a 10 Bcf natural gas storage operation. The project, which is among more than a dozen proposed gas storage fields that have been announced in the last few years, would include pipeline interconnects with Enterprise Texas Pipeline, Enterprise Texas Intrastate (Channel), Kinder Morgan Texas Pipeline and Texas Eastern Transmission.

Enterprise is holding a nonbinding open season Nov. 20 through Jan. 16 to test market interest in the project. The company expects to begin services at the new field in the second half of 2008.

Mont Belvieu storage joins a growing list of new gas storage projects that includes at least four recently announced fields in Texas: Freeport LNG Development’s proposed 7.5 Bcf storage field in Brazoria County, Underground Storage LLC’s proposed 3 Bcf Pierce Junction salt dome in Harris County, Chevron’s 6 Bcf Sabine Pass storage field in Jefferson County, and NGS Investments’ 8 Bcf Tres Palacios Gas Storage project in Matagorda County. A total of about 66 new storage fields and 19 expansions of existing storage fields are planned across North America.

Since 2000, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved about 27.5 Bcf of storage capacity and 14.6 Bcf/d of daily storage deliverability. Most of the projects have been in the Southeast/Gulf Coast area, which has an abundance of salt formations that can be used for high-deliverability storage. There are two storage projects pending at the Commission, one in Alabama and one in Michigan, with a total of 79.2 Bcf of storage space and 1.8 Bcf/d of deliverability. FERC staff said at a recent Commission meeting that 125 Bcf of new storage capacity is in the planning stages with 4 Bcf/d of deliverability.

For information on the Mont Belvieu open season, contact Enterprise’s Russ Kovin at (713) 381-7925 or rkovin@eprod.com.

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