Cheyenne Plains Gas Pipeline Co. filed with FERC last week for approval of a 380-mile, 30-inch pipe from the Cheyenne Hub east to carry up as much as 560 MMcf/d to connections with Midcontinent pipes in Kansas.

The long-awaited new connection for Rockies gas with eastern markets has a proposed in operation date of mid-summer 2005. The line is expected to cost $338.1 million. The filing by Cheyenne Plains, an El Paso subsidiary, came within a month of the opening of the 900 MMcf/d Kern River expansion from the Rockies west (see NGI, May 12) and following on a final environmental impact statement by the Bureau of Land Management which allows extensive drilling in the region to proceed (see NGI, May 5).

Cheyenne Plains would provide a new direct route to Midcontinent markets for rapidly growing Powder River Basin coalbed methane production, gas supply from the Jonah Field in the Green River Basin and other gas production from Wyoming. Greensburg, KS, was picked as a destination because several pipelines meet there, including ANR Pipeline, Kinder Morgan Interstate Pipeline, Northern Natural Gas, Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line, and Williams, which together provide more than 6 Bcf/d of takeaway capacity in the area.

El Paso’s Colorado Interstate Gas (CIG) has been gathering support for the project, which originally was named the Coastal Connection, testing the market with open seasons going back to 2000. A fall, 2002 open season resulted in firm contracts for 540 MMcf/d of capacity, and a supplemental open season that ended last month tacked on an additional 20 MMcf/d.

The 14 firm shippers, the Cheyenne Plains filing said, include Palo Petroleum, 120,000 Dth/d; Anadarko Energy Services 100,000 Dth/d; Kansas Gas Service, 75,000 Dth/d; Enogex, 60,000 Dth/d; Westport Resources, 43,400 Dth/d; and BP Energy, and Kerr-McGee, 40,000 Dth/d each.

The pipeline will help tap the increased Rockies production, which grew by 121%, or by 1.94 Bcf/d, between 1990 and 2001. While Kern River’s expansion will carry some of the area’s over-supply, an additional pipe still is needed, Cheyenne Plains said in its application. Other pipe construction in the region has served to carry added supplies to the Cheyenne Hub, and that production needs an outlet.

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