Just a few months after it completed separate pipeline expansion projects in Texas and New Mexico, Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) has finished its 56-mile Katy expansion pipeline project, which increases the capacity of the partnership’s existing ETC Katy natural gas pipeline in southeast Texas by more than 400 MMcf/d.

Announced in October 2007 (see Daily GPI, Oct. 10, 2007), the 36-inch Katy expansion provides approximately 20,000 hp of compression to the 30-inch diameter section of the ETC Katy pipeline, which extends from the partnership’s Grimes County, TX, compressor station to the Katy natural gas trading hub. The project increases the capacity of the pipeline from 700 MMcf/d to more than 1.1 Bcf/d, enhancing transportation service out of the Barnett Shale and Bossier Sands natural gas plays in Texas.

ETP said it now has nearly 13,000 miles of natural gas gathering and transportation pipelines in Texas and claims to operate the largest intrastate pipeline system in the United States. In September the company completed two natural gas projects, adding 875 MMcf/d of capacity to its existing transmission systems — the 42-inch diameter Carthage Loop pipeline in Texas and the 36-inch diameter San Juan Loop pipeline in New Mexico (see Daily GPI, Sept. 10, 2008).

“Our nation’s pipeline infrastructure must be expanded to handle not only the production of natural gas in new production areas, but also to better serve today’s emerging population centers,” said Mike Howard, president of the company’s midstream operations.

In addition to Texas and New Mexico, ETP has pipeline operations in Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana and Utah. Its pipe assets include approximately 14,600 miles of intrastate and 2,450 miles of interstate in service, with approximately 250 miles apiece of intrastate and interstate pipe under construction.

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