Equitrans LP Monday asked FERC for a four-month extension of the deadline to complete and place in service its proposed Big Sandy Pipeline. The project is intended to ease transportation constraints in eastern Kentucky that have caused producers to shut in natural gas production in recent years.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which approved the pipeline project in November 2006, directed Equitrans to have it in operation by Nov. 15 of this year (see Daily GPI, Nov. 16, 2006). But Equitrans, citing a number of problems that it has faced along the way, asked FERC to give it until March 31, 2008 to have the facilities operable [CP06-275].

Equitrans, a subsidiary of Equitable Resources in Pittsburgh, said it has been hampered by initial delays in securing pipeline rights-of-way (ROW) for the project; a delay in clearing the ROW because it had to conduct a study plan on the impact to summer roosting of Indian bats; and insufficient labor to meet the projected completion schedule.

The company is building a 70-mile, 20-inch diameter pipeline and associated facilities that would extend from Equitable Resources’ Kentucky Hydrocarbon plant in Langley in eastern Kentucky to Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s Broad Run Lateral in Carter County. The Big Sandy Pipeline project, when completed, would provide 130,000 MMBtu/d of takeaway capacity for Kentucky producers to transport Appalachian gas to markets in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions.

Equitrans has been in a race with Atmos Energy’s Straight Creek Gathering LP to build a pipeline to relieve the constraints in the eastern Kentucky market (see Daily GPI, Sept. 6, 2006). The Straight Creek project, which FERC approved in October 2006, is a 60-mile pipeline that would serve as the backbone of a new gathering system in the region (see Daily GPI, Oct. 4, 2006). The status of that project could not be immediately learned.

The Straight Creek system would extend from Floyd County, KY, north to interconnect with the Tennessee system in Carter County [CP06-369]. The 20-inch diameter line would be capable of initially moving up to 110,000 MMBtu/d of gas, with the ability to expand throughput to 225,000 MMBtu/d.

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