FERC has approved a certificate for Williams‘ Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line‘s (Transco) Mobile Bay South project. New service from the project would be available in the second quarter of 2010. The project is designed to create 253,500 Dth of southbound, year-round firm capacity on the Mobile Bay Lateral from Transco’s mainline at Station 85 near Butler, AL, to its interconnect with Gulfstream Natural Gas System in Coden, AL. “The Mobile Bay South project will enable us to provide firm southbound transportation service for growing domestic supplies from new pipeline interconnects at Station 85 to markets in Southwest Alabama and Florida, as well as third-party storage facilities, while maintaining the full capability of the lateral to supply our traditional customers through northbound service to Station 85,” said Phil Wright, president of Williams’ natural gas pipeline business. The project will require construction of a 9,470 hp compressor facility at Station 85 in Choctaw County, AL. Williams estimates that the project facilities will cost $37 million. The project received its environmental approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in March (see Daily GPI, March 19).

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is taking comments about Noble Energy‘s plans to drill natural gas wells from five well pads south of Rulison, CO, in western Garfield County. The U.S. Department of Energy has dropped its opposition to gas drilling within a half-mile of the Project Rulison nuclear blast site, but Garfield County commissioners have asked DOE to drill some test wells before any new energy development is allowed closer to the site (see Daily GPI, April 8). Noble’s Cache Creek Master Development Plan, on file at BLM’s Glenwood Springs, CO, office, outlines plans to drill 79 wells in the next two to three years. The well pads would be located on private land, but directional drilling from the pads would stretch beneath federal land, Noble said. Included in the proposal are plans to build a road and pipeline on U.S. Forest Service (USFS) lands. The BLM and the USFS will prepare environmental impact statements of the plans, and the public will be allowed to submit comments until June 8. Written comments should be directed to BLM’s Glenwood Springs Energy Office, 2425 S. Grand Ave., Ste. 101, Glenwood Springs, CO 81601; electronic comments may be submitted to gsfomail@co.blm.gov. Copies of the plan and the project map are available at www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/gsfo.html. Select “Oil and Gas,” “Master Plans of Development” and “Cache Creek Proposed Plan.”

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