FERC issued a certificate Thursday to Dominion Cove Point LNG LP for its proposed Cove Point East Project, which will include two new compressor stations with 19,340 horsepower in Loudoun and Fairfax counties, VA.

The $43.5 million expansion of Cove Point’s existing pipeline system will add 445,000 Dth/d in additional firm transportation capacity. Dominion Cove Point has signed two binding precedent agreements, including a 20-year contract for 350,000 Dth/d beginning on Dec. 15 with Washington Gas Light and a 20-year contract with Virginia Power Service Energy Corp. for 90,000 Dth/d beginning on June 1, 2004.

Dominion Cove Point’s 87-mile pipeline connects with three major interstate pipelines in northern Virginia — Dominion Transmission, Columbia Gas and Transcontinental Gas. Through these connections, gas can flow to major markets throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, as well as to traditional underground storage fields.

FERC approved the recommissioning of the import facilities at Cove Point in fall of 2001 (see Daily GPI, Oct. 12, 2001). Cove Point received its first commercial delivery in 23 years in August from Trinidad and Tobago (see Daily GPI, Aug. 26). The facility has a storage capacity of 5 Bcf, which will be expanded to 7.8 Bcf when construction of a fifth LNG storage tank is completed in the next couple years. The facility can deliver 1 Bcf/d of gas into the market.

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