FERC Friday gave Bobcat Gas Storage the green light to place into service pipeline facilities that will connect its salt dome natural gas storage project in St. Landry Parish, LA, to the interstate pipeline grid (see Daily GPI, Oct. 10).

Bobcat’s pipeline facilities include the North Pipeline Corridor interconnecting with the Transcontinental Gas Pipe and Texas Eastern Transmission systems; the South Pipeline Corridor interconnecting with the ANR Pipeline, Florida Gas Transmission and Gulf South Pipeline systems; the Southwest Corridor interconnecting with the ANR system; the West Corridor interconnecting with the Gulf South Pipeline system; and all associated metering and interconnected facilities [CP06-66].

In early October Sugarland, TX-based Bobcat asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to place one of its storage caverns in service by Nov. 1, contingent on its receiving authorization from the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources to begin debrining the cavern, but the Commission has yet to respond.

“Bobcat is proceeding with cavern solution mining and expects to have solution mined 6 Bcf of total storage capacity in Cavern No. 1 in time to provide storage service by no later than Nov. 1. Bobcat plans on expanding Cavern No. 1 to its full 7.8 Bcf certificated capacity in the near term using a solution mining under gas (SMUG) process. Bobcat will inform the Commission when it has completed the SMUG process,” the storage company said in its Oct. 9 request.

“Bobcat is proceeding with leaching of Cavern No. 2 and expects to have leached enough cavern space to provide storage service on Cavern No. 2 by no later than Nov. 1, 2009.” The second cavern also is expected to have working gas capacity of 7.8 Bcf. Bobcat said as many as five caverns could be located at the facility site.

The high-deliverability project is sited near Eunice, LA, and the Henry Hub, two of the top trading centers in the Gulf Coast region (see Daily GPI, Dec. 15, 2005). The storage facility is being developed by Port Barre Investments LLC and its financial sponsor, Haddington Energy Partners III LLC, a private equity fund that provides capital to develop energy infrastructure with a focus on gas storage, gathering and processing.

©Copyright 2008Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.