Recognizing the need for more high-deliverability storage to support the rapid growth of gas-fired power generation in Texas, Falcon Gas Storage acquired a second storage facility in the state, with plans to increase cycling capabilities and connect the facility to the main Texas pipeline grid. The Hill-Lake natural gas storage facility is located about 100 miles west of Dallas/Fort Worth in Eastland County. Falcon purchased rights to the plant from TXU Lone Star Pipeline.

Falcon plans to turn the Hill-Lake storage plant from a single-cycle facility, serving the Abilene market during the winter heating season, to a high-deliverability operation attached to the Texas gas pipeline grid. Falcon plans to add compression, retrofit surface facilities and drill horizontal injection/withdrawal wells in order to convert the Hill-Lake facility into a multi-cycle storage plant capable of four to six annual inventory cycles, with peak withdrawal capacity in excess of 300,000 MMBu/d.

In addition, Falcon said it plans to construct a 16-mile, 20-inch diameter high-pressure pipeline to TXU Lone Star Pipeline Co.’s “X” line and the North Texas Pipeline jointly owned by TXU Fuels and El Paso Natural Gas. The latter two 36-inch diameter gas transmission pipelines traverse the emerging energy corridor that runs from the Waha Hub in West Texas to the Carthage Hub in East Texas.

“We are very fortunate to have had the unique opportunity to purchase an operating single-cycle gas storage facility that not only can be retrofitted for HDMC [high-deliverability, multi-cycle] service at an acceptable cost, but also is in such a strategic location,” said John M. Hopper, Falcon Gas Storage president. “With the new interconnections, Falcon will be able to provide HDMC storage services to gas utilities and marketers that serve the residential, commercial and industrial loads in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex and surrounding areas. In addition, Hill-Lake will now be able to meet the needs of the numerous gas-fired electric generating facilities that are being built along the Waha-Carthage energy corridor.”

Hill-Lake is Falcon’s second acquisition in less than six months. In October, the company acquired the Worsham-Steed gas storage facility in Jack County, Texas, which is about 50 miles from Dallas/Fort Worth. Both facilities are strategically located near major gas pipelines and electric transmission lines that serve the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area.

Houston-based Falcon is a privately held company that has more than 20 Bcf of working gas storage capacity in Texas, with three additional HDMC gas storage projects in various stages of development in Texas, New York and the Rocky Mountains. Hopper is the former president and CEO of Inventory Management and Distribution Company (IMD), which was engaged in the management and economic optimization of natural gas storage assets for gas and electric utilities. IMD’s asset management business was sold to Koch Energy Trading Co. last year.

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