NGS Energy is holding a binding open season through June 16 for gas storage services to be provided at its Leaf River Energy Center, a new salt cavern facility located in Smith County, MS, the company said.

Westport, CT-based NGS obtained FERC approval for its Leaf River facility last year (see Daily GPI, Nov. 4, 2008) and began construction in January. The facility will provide up to 32 Bcf of working capacity, injection capability of up to 1 Bcf/d and withdrawal capability of up to 2.5 Bcf/d. Leaf River will have a 43-mile pipeline header system that will offer interconnects with the Southern Natural Gas, Gulf South, Transco, Tennessee, Destin and KM Midcontinent Express pipelines.

NGS said it has signed a firm storage service precedent agreement with Southern Companies Services Inc., which acted as agent for Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power and Southern Power, for a 15-year term for 3 Bcf in Phase I and 3 Bcf in Phase II at the Leaf River facility.

For information about Leaf River and the open season, contact Patrice Thurston at (203) 557-1000 or e-mail pthurston@ngsenergy.com.

Other NGS facilities include Tres Palacios Gas Storage in southeast Texas and Windy Hill Gas Storage in northern Colorado.

Last month NGS and El Paso Corp. signed a deal to develop a natural gas storage facility in Pinal County, AZ (see Daily GPI, May 18). That project is located in the Picacho Basin and would include a nine-mile pipeline header system that could connect to Transwestern Pipeline, El Paso Natural Gas and new and proposed gas-fired generation plants. Arizona currently has no gas storage facilities.

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