El Paso’s Wyoming Interstate Co. (WIC) announced Wednesday its plans to build the Uinta Basin expansion project, which would provide additional natural gas transportation capacity out of eastern Utah’s Uinta Basin. Kerr-McGee, a major producer in the Rockies with growing Uinta Basin volumes,. has signed an agreement for firm transportation capacity and will anchor the expansion project.

The project calls for the construction of a 128-mile, 20- or 24-inch diameter pipeline from processing facilities near affiliate Colorado Interstate Gas’s Natural Buttes Plant in Uinta County, UT, to Kanda, an interconnection point with the Overthrust Pipeline and WIC in Sweetwater County, WY. The new pipeline, which would have the capacity to deliver 250,000 to 350,000 Dth/d, also will have interconnects with Northwest Pipeline, Questar Pipeline, Questar’s Clay Basin Storage and CIG. In addition, WIC plans to expand its mainline system from Kanda, east to Wamsutter, WY, to accommodate increased volumes.

Assuming regulatory approval, the anticipated in-service date for the Uinta Basin expansion is January 2008, according to El Paso. The company has initiated a binding open season for the project that will run through Nov. 30. For further information on the open season, contact Craig Coombs at (719) 520-4387 or at craig.coombs@elpaso.com.

“Our Colorado Interstate Gas subsidiary has been one of the early transporters out of the Uinta Basin, and this project reinforces our strategic development in this high-growth region,” sad James J. Cleary, president of El Paso’s Western Pipelines. “Not only will this…expansion provide Uinta producers, marketers and other shippers a critical, direct link to important Rockies trading points, it will give customers across the country additional access to Uinta Basin gas supplies.”

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