The first cavern at the Golden Triangle Storage facility near Beaumont, TX, has entered initial commercial operations, AGL Resources said Thursday. Full commercial service of about 6 Bcf of working capacity is expected to begin after dewatering in December.

“Today — after two years of construction and cavern creation — we began injecting natural gas into Cavern 1 for our customers,” said Dana Grams, president of Pivotal Energy Development, a unit of AGL Resources. “At the same time, we are on schedule to bring Cavern 2 into service early in 2012.”

The project was approved for interim service by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last month (see Daily GPI, Aug. 12).

Construction of surface facilities began in May 2008. When the second cavern is completed, it is expected that the facility will have 12 Bcf of working capacity.

Cavern operations are supported by a 14,025 hp compressor system and dual 24-inch diameter pipeline headers interconnected to six measurement stations in Jefferson and Orange counties in Texas. The header and interconnect stations are bidirectional for injection and withdrawal.

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