Classifying recent local media reports that Dominion’s proposed Greenbrier pipeline was in trouble as “misunderstandings,” Dominion spokesman Bob Fulton said the company’s pipeline project — despite a few bumps in the road — is still on target to meet its Nov. 2005 in-service date.

The proposed 279-mile pipeline, which will have 585 MMcf/d of capacity and cost $479 million, would originate in Kanawha County, WV, with interconnections to Dominion Transmission and Tennessee Gas Pipeline, and extend through southwestern Virginia into Granville County, NC. In April, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued the proposed pipeline a certificate (see Daily GPI, April 10).

Due to a variety of reasons such as staffing and seasonality, Fulton said the company put some of the project’s environmental studies on hold until sometime next year when the timeframe is right to study impacts on threatened and endangered species.

“We’ve already done considerable work on the project and it is well underway,” said Fulton. “One area we are really looking into is the reevaluation of the market area. Supply for the electric generation industry had accounted for much of the capacity on the Greenbrier pipeline and some of the cancellations and postponements of those power plants…[forced] us to step back and take a look at our market.

“We do have existing contracts with customers,” added Fulton. “We continue to talk to other potential customers and we are really confident that the market will start coming back in that area because it is really slated to be an area for potential growth and development down through the Carolinas, Virginia and West Virginia.”

Denouncing local media claims that the project only has 12% of its capacity subscribed, Fuller noted that he wasn’t “sure where they are getting those numbers from.” He said he believes the project is “approaching 60% [capacity] in precedent agreements.”

Under FERC rule, the project will need to have firm contracts for 90% of its capacity before actual construction can commence. The Commission issued the April certificate only after Dominion Transmission Inc., the majority partner in the project, assured the agency that approximately 90% of the transportation capacity to be created by the proposed natural gas pipeline was under contract to power generators and local distribution companies.

Dominion Transmission has a 67% ownership stake in the project, while Piedmont Natural Gas has a 33% interest. Piedmont serves 700,000 LDC customers in North Carolina.

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