ConocoPhillips Co. affiliate, Compass Pass Pipeline LLC, has filed an application seeking the go-ahead to construct a small onshore pipeline that would receive LNG-sourced natural gas from a proposed offshore pipeline and import terminal and regasification facilities that are being developed by the energy company off the coast of Alabama.

Compass Pass Pipeline also asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to waive the open-access requirements for the five-mile pipeline to be located in Coden, AL.

“ConocoPhillips would prefer to avoid the situation where the LNG import terminal and 26 miles of offshore pipeline are operated on a proprietary basis, as permitted by the amended Deepwater Port Act, while the ‘last leg’ of the project (the five-mile onshore pipeline) is subject to the full range of the Commission’s Part 284 open-access requirements,” Compass Pass Pipeline said in its application.

A “bifurcated regulatory structure” for the LNG facilities would be “disproportionately burdensome,” requiring ConocoPhillips to maintain separate operational and business structures for the jurisdictional and non-jurisdictional aspects of the project, and to provide open-access services for only one intended pipeline customer — ConocoPhillips, the company said.

The proposed 36-inch diameter onshore pipeline in Alabama would extend five miles northeast to an interconnect with Gulfstream Natural Gas System’s 30-inch diameter Line 100 lateral, and would continue farther north for a short distance where it would connect to Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line and Gulf South Pipeline Co. LP. It would have the capacity to transport 1 Bcf/d, the pipeline company said.

The onshore line would accept gas from a 26-mile offshore pipeline, which would provide takeaway capacity of 1 Bcf/d from the proposed LNG import terminal, storage and regasification facilities.

Located about 33 miles from Mobile, AL, the ConocoPhillips terminal would be able to receive tankers carrying up to 255,000 cubic meters of LNG, store 300,000 cubic meters of LNG in two storage tanks, and regasify LNG for pipeline delivery. These facilities, along with the offshore pipeline, would be owned and operated by Compass Port LLC, also a ConocoPhillips affiliate.

ConocoPhillips said it expects to place the LNG terminal and pipeline facilities into service by September 2008.

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