Columbia Gulf Transmission filed a request with FERC last weekfor authorization to expand its mainline for the first time since1971. The filing requests authorization to provide 315,000 Dth/d offirm capacity to 19 shippers, 14 of which will be new to thesystem. Most of the service requests would be provided withexisting capacity. An expansion project would increase Columbia’scurrent throughput capability by 100,000 Dth/d through the additionof new compression.

The expansion is necessary to meet the “demand pull” that’sexpected in Columbia Energy’s market area in the Mid-Atlanticstates and in the Northeast, said Catherine G. Abbott, presidentand CEO of Columbia Gas Transmission and Columbia GulfTransmission, at the Process Gas Consumers’ third annual conferencein Baltimore, MD, last Thursday.

The company is projecting a demand hike of 4.2 Bcf/d in theNortheast by 2010, with more than half going to the electricsector. This would be on top of the 3 Bcf/d increase in gas usagein the Northeast during the last decade, Abbott told industrial gascustomers.

An open season late last year for Columbia’s Mainline ’99expansion yielded requests for 315,000 Dth/d. About 12,000 Dth/dthat was turned back by existing shippers also will be used toserve the new requests. Columbia Gulf President Terrance L. McGillsaid 63% of the capacity was awarded to marketers, 27% was awardedto local distributors and 10% went to industrial customers.

Columbia said it plans to expand the 2,400-mile system through atwo-phase installation. About 35,000 hp of compression will beadded in 1999 and 15,000 hp in 2000 at existing compressor stationslocated at Inverness and Corinth, MS, and at Hampshire, TN.

Columbia Gulf’s mainline system stretches from Rayne, in SouthCentral Louisiana to the Kentucky-West Virginia border, south ofAshland, KY. It connects Gulf Coast supplies to markets in theSouth, as well as the Midwest, East and Northeast areas of theUnited States.

Rocco Canonica; Susan Parker, Baltimore, MD

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