The initial phase of the 330-mile Entrega gas pipeline project was given the green light to begin service by FERC on Wednesday. Phase I is a 136-mile, 36-inch diameter pipeline extending from the Meeker Hub in Rio Blanco County, CO, through Moffat County, CO, to Wamsutter in Sweetwater County, WY. The line will add 750 MMcf/d of firm capacity to the region, significantly boosting gas deliveries out of the Piceance Basin. Service is expected to begin next month.

The Phase I project interconnects with the Colorado Interstate Gas (CIG) and Wyoming Interstate Co. transmission systems at Wamsutter. Those pipelines would carry supplies to markets east and west of Wamsutter until Phase II of the Entrega project is built to the Cheyenne Hub. The 191-mile Phase II section of the project would extend the system from Wamsutter through Carbon, Albany and Laramie Counties, WY, and Larimer County, CO, to the Cheyenne Hub in northern Colorado, where it would interconnect with multiple downstream pipelines.

The project also includes 15,400 horsepower of compression at the Meeker Hub Compressor Station, 30,000 hp at the Bighole Compressor Station in Moffat County, CO, and 20,620 hp at the Wamsutter Compressor Station. The compression is expected to be added by April 2007 and will boost the Entrega pipeline capacity to 1.5 Bcf/d.

Kinder Morgan and Sempra Energy, which are buying Entrega from EnCana Corp. to make the pipeline the upstream section of their proposed Rockies Express project, also have signed an agreement to lease 1.5 Bcf/d of proposed capacity on Questar’s Overthrust Pipeline in order to bring gas from Wamsutter to the Opal Hub in western Wyoming. In order to bring gas to Overthrust, Entrega would have to build a new extension. Details of that project are still being worked out following open seasons that concluded this month.

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