Columbia Gas Transmission Corp. has put five West Virginia gas gathering pipelines, totaling about 428 miles, along with five compressor stations on the auction block. The company will open a data room on July 10 to provide information to natural gas producers, marketers and others who may be interested in buying any one or all of the five pipeline systems.

“As primarily gathering systems, the facilities for sale are not part of Columbia Transmission’s core business of high-volume transportation and storage of natural gas,” the company said in a statement, noting that the facilities are used mainly to carry gas from Appalachian producing wells to transmission pipelines.

“These are small gathering systems that we have owned and operated for years, going back to the days before the 1971 restructuring of the old Columbia Gas System when companies did it all — production, gathering, and sales,” said Columbia spokesman Kelly Merritt. “We think it is more appropriate for a producer or producing group to own these. We’ve been in the process of selling off small, non-core assets for several years. We probably will have a few additional small systems like these to sell in the future.”

The five systems currently for sale include the following:

The company’s data room on the facilities is located at Columbia Transmission’s Charleston, WV, office. Access is available through Aug. 4 by appointment. For details call (304) 357-2732. Formal bids for the purchase of the pipeline systems, either individually or for all five systems together, are due by 5 p.m., Aug. 11. Columbia reserves the right to reject all bids or make counter offers as appropriate and require all bids to be submitted in a uniform basis. Any sale is subject to appropriate regulatory approvals.

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