Following through on a FERC request to expand its pipelinesystem to California, El Paso Natural Gas filed a plan yesterday toadd 230 MMcf/d by Aug. 31 to help alleviate the energy crisis inthe West.

In an amendment to an existing application submitted Thursday,El Paso said it was seeking to change its crude-oil pipelineconversion project to an expansion of its existing system. El Pasomade the change in response to a suggestion by FERC’s Office ofEnergy Projects, which said such a modification to the project”could assist the difficult situation” now facing the Californiagas market.

Initially, El Paso had proposed its so-called Line 2000 projectas a loop line to replace compression that it planned to removefrom its system, and not as a system expansion. But the pipelinetold FERC yesterday that there has been a “radical change in thedynamics of the natural-gas market in California.” The energycrisis continues in the region and there is an immediate need foradditional volumes of gas to serve growing electric generation, thepipeline said.

El Paso asked the Commission to give it the authority to begincleaning and converting a large segment of the 1,088-mile crude oilpipeline by March 31, and to approve the overall expansion projectby mid-April. It hopes to have the expanded capacity in operationby late August. However, it is seeking FERC approval of a projectthat has no signed contracts with customers for the proposedcapacity. El Paso plans to use the extra capacity to create systemflexibility to meet peak gas demand initially. The pipelinementioned that it plans to take a significant amount of capacityout of service for testing this spring because of the explosionthat occurred on its system last fall. As a result the extracapacity is needed “as quickly as possible.”

Separately, Williams also filed an application at FERC to expandits Kern River pipeline to the California market. The expansionwould add 135 MDth/d of firm transportation from Wyoming toCalifornia to help meet the urgent demand for gas in the state.

Based on an open season that will ended Thursday, Williamspredicted the proposed expansion will be fully subscribed. “Theresponse to the open season has been tremendous…If we can obtain,on a timely basis, the necessary permits to construct and operatethe new facilities, we are confident Kern River can provideadditional gas supplies to the California market in time for the2001 cooling season,” said Kirk Morgan, director of businessdevelopment for the pipeline.

©Copyright 2001 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, inwhole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.