Construction is complete, and Transwestern Pipeline Co. hasincreased its available capacity to California by 15%, a moveproviding expansion shippers with opportunities to move incrementalvolumes from the San Juan and Permian Basins to the Californiaborder. The $12 million project was approved by FERC in mid-January(see NGI, Jan. 17, 2000).

Transwestern’s approach to boosting its pipeline capacityincluded the installation of a 10,000 hp motor to run the newcompressor station near Gallup, NM, and the addition of gas coolersat the La Plata “A” compressor station at Ignacio, CO, andBloomfield, NM. The in-service date was May 1, according to companyofficials.

The expansion is expected to allow Transwestern to maintain itsmainline operating pressure from Thoreau west to California at 950psig at all times, enabling it to better accommodate shifts inmarket demand to the east without restricting delivery capacity toCalifornia. With this move, Transwestern will be able to once againoperate its mainline west of Thoreau at its certificated capacityof 1.09 Bcf/d on a firm basis, and meet its demand for gas on theeastern portion of its system. This includes delivery of 750 MMcf/dto Needles, CA, and 340 MMcf/d to Topock, AZ.

The cooling equipment is expected to create an additional 50,000Mcf/d of incremental firm capacity on the Blanco-to-Thoreau segmentof the San Juan lateral, according to company officials.

Six shippers contracted with Transwestern for the 140,000 Mcf/dof capacity created by the Gallup expansion, including SouthernEnergy, Sempra Energy Trading, North Star Steel, Duke EnergyTrading and Marketing, Reliant Energy Services and El Paso EnergyMarketing. The transportation contracts are for five years, exceptfor North Star Steel and El Paso Energy Marketing.

According to FERC, the Gallup expansion is not expected toaffect the take-away capacity of downstream shippers and “will notresult in Transwestern transporting more gas than its certificatedcapacity level.” FERC said the expansion would allow the company toprovide the level of service it already has been authorized to dofor “Needles to Topock.”

Carolyn Davis, Houston

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