Falcon Gas Storage Co. Inc. subsidiary NorTex Gas Storage Co. LLC started flowing gas through its newly constructed Worsham-Steed Pipeline, the company said Monday.

The system is a 60-mile, 24-inch high-pressure pipeline in the western portion of the Barnett Shale play in North Texas. Initial flow rates have ranged 150,000-200,000 Mcf/d and are expected to increase as gas injection activity accelerates at the Falcon’s Worsham-Steed Gas Storage facility.

Traversing Jack, Parker and Hood counties, the pipeline has a capacity of 450,000 Mcf/d, which can be expanded to 650,000 Mcf/d. The pipe connects with three export pipelines serving the North Texas market area — Energy Transfer’s Old Ocean pipeline, Enterprise Product’s and Energy Transfer’s North Texas Pipeline, and Atmos Energy’s Line X pipeline. These pipelines serve markets from the Waha Hub in West Texas to the Carthage Hub in Northeast Texas, as well as the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and surrounding areas in North Texas, including the Barnett Shale. Ultimately, Falcon plans to connect the Worsham-Steed Pipeline with a total of 10 pipelines in the North Texas/Barnett Shale market area.

The Worsham-Steed Pipeline completion is a part of the expansion of Falcon’s Worsham-Steed Gas Storage Facility, a new high-deliverability, multi-cycle storage facility near Dallas-Fort Worth with a working gas capacity of approximately 24 Bcf and more than 450,000 Mcf/d of deliverability. The Worsham-Steed facility began accepting gas for injection this month.

In addition to providing transportation capacity needed for gas storage services, the Worsham-Steed Pipeline also is available for standalone gas transportation services, with additional gas transportation capacity of up to 150,000 Mcf/d for Barnett Shale gas producers and processors to move growing gas production from this highly capacity-constrained region.

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