Florida Gas Transmission Company (FGT) proved last week thatit’s not going to give up its monopoly access to the rapidlygrowing Florida market without a fight. The Citrus Corp. subsidiaryfiled its second pipeline expansion application with FERC in a yearin an attempt to head off competition from several proposedgreenfield pipelines, including Williams Companies’ Buccaneerproject, Coastal’s Gulfstream pipeline and Duke Energy’s Sawgrassproject (see NGI, Oct. 4, and Oct. 19).

FGT’s proposed $438 million Phase V Expansion includes signedfirm agreements with eight shippers for the entire 400 MMcf/d ofproposed incremental expansion space. The project would to expandFGT’s 4,800-mile transmission system by adding 231 miles ofunderground pipe and 90,000 hp of compression and associatedfacilities.

“Along with our current Phase IV Expansion and increased directaccess to the Mobile Bay producing region, we are well-positionedin the Florida market to provide the natural gas transmissionservices our customers require,” said Rockford G. Meyer, presidentof FGT.

Included in the application is FGT’s proposal to buy 300 MMcf/dof capacity in Koch Gateway’s Mobile Bay lateral to increase accessto Mobile Bay gas production (see NGI, Nov. 8). FGT plans toconstruct 28 miles of new pipeline and add compression and otherfacilities necessary to connect the Mobile Bay lateral to FGT’smainline near Citronelle in Mobile County, AL.

The Phase V expansion is designed primarily to meet growingelectricity demand in Florida. Six of the eight expansion shipperswill use the additional firm space to serve electricity generation.The shippers include Southern Company Services, Florida Power andLight, Jacksonville Electric, Peoples Gas, the City of Tallahassee,Dynegy, Enron North America Corp. and U.S. Agri-Chemicals. OnlyU.S. Agri-Chemicals and Peoples will be using the space to servenon-power load. The two anchor customers are FPL and Southern. FPLplans to use the expansion to serve a repowering of its Sanfordpower plant in Volusia County, while Southern subsidiary Gulf Powerwill use the space to serve a new gas-fired power plant.

FGT said the expansion complies fully with the new FERC rulesconcerning balancing the interests of the public, including gasconsumers, the environment and landowners. The filing includesextensive data concerning the environmental impacts of the project.FGT anticipates that construction of Phase V will begin in March2001. The project is scheduled to be completed and placed intoservice by spring 2002. FGT’s $268 million proposed Phase IVexpansion is expected to add 327 MMcf/d of firm space by May 2001(see NGI, Dec. 7, 1998). Rocco Canonica

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