Bobcat Gas Storage said its recent nonbinding open season drew market interest for five times the 12 Bcf of working gas capacity in its proposed salt dome storage project in St. Landry Parish, LA. The company has requested final FERC approval of the project by July 15 and expects service to begin in October 2007.

Bobcat said it received market-priced bids from 17 companies that are “leaders in the energy industry.” The value of the bids “indicates that the market participants are recognizing the value of holding flexible natural gas storage in their energy portfolios,” the company said. However, nonbinding open season results are only preliminary indications of market interest. Bobcat said it will begin working with the top bidders to finalize service agreements and seek all approvals necessary to proceed with the development.

The project will offer customers interconnections with five interstate pipelines — Texas Eastern Transmission, Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line, Florida Gas Transmission, Gulf South Pipeline and ANR Pipeline — as well as the Cypress intrastate pipeline system. The storage project, which is sponsored by private equity fund Port Barre Investments, a subsidiary of Haddington Ventures III LLC, is expected to provide 1 Bcf/d of deliverability and 600 MMcf/d of maximum injection capacity. Details can be found at https://www.bobcatstorage.com.

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