Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America (NGPL) Tuesday was awarded a certificate by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to convert 10.7 Bcf of cushion gas into working gas at its North Lansing storage field in Harrison County, TX.

NGPL will start work next spring on the installation of a 6,000-horsepower compressor and 17 injection/withdrawal wells in order to raise the firm late-season deliverability of the field. FERC bestowed a preliminary determination on the project in October and followed up with the certificate this week with the completion of its environmental assessment (see Daily GPI, Nov. 5). NGPL will have to make several modifications to its plans to comply with environmental conditions imposed by the Commission.

The pipeline also still must report to FERC by Jan. 10 on the results of a new open season ordered by the Commission, which earlier found NGPL had failed to consider recourse bids and did not solicit turn-back capacity in its initial capacity sign-up. A report on the open season was due in mid-December, but NGPL asked and was granted an extension.

A spokesman for NGPL said the company had completed the request for turnback and new open season and would file its report next month. He believes FERC went ahead with the certificate because of the market need for more storage capacity and to enable the company to order equipment for the upgrade. He noted other storage projects have been running fairly swiftly through the Commission.

The project would increase the North Lansing field’s working gas level to 84.7 Bcf out of a total of 156 Bcf. The new injection/withdrawal wells would boost the North Lansing field’s late-season deliverability by 222 MMcf/d, which would support 146,666 Dth/d of additional firm service under Rate Service NSS (Nominated Storage Service). The cost of the project has been estimated at $31 million.

The NGPL field has a maximum daily injection capacity of 450 MMcf, with a maximum daily deliverability capability of 1.1 Bcf. It is located near Longview, TX at the south end of NGPL’s system and is accessible to Gulf Coast markets, as well as pipelines delivering to the East Coast.

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