The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was in a giving mood last Thursday as it handed out a number of certificates and permits for pipeline and storage expansion projects filed by Colorado Interstate Gas Co. (CIG), Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline LLC, Egan Hub Partners LP, Iroquois Gas Transmission and Reef International LLC.

CIG was awarded a certificate to build a 45,000 Dth/d loop expansion of its Campo Lateral out of the Raton Basin in Colorado, a major coal-bed methane (CBM) producing region. The $22 million project calls for the construction of 46 miles of looping of CIG’s Campo Lateral in Las Animas and Baca Counties, CO, and 7.67 miles of pipeline loop on CIG’s existing Line 3A in Cimarron County, OK.

The expansion is the latest of several projects that CIG has undertaken over the years to serve the growing CBM development in the basin. Production in the area had tripled to approximately 130 MMcf/d by mid-2001, CIG said, while a recent U.S. Geological Survey Report concluded that an estimated 18.4 Tcf of CBM remains in the Raton Basin.

The expansion would serve three customers: El Paso Energy Raton LLC (10,000 Dth/d) for a term of 10 years; Primero Gas Marketing Co. (25,000 Dth/d) for 11 years; and Barrett Resources Corp. (10,000 Dth/d) for 10 years, the FERC order said [CP02-6].

CIG says the expansion will allow shippers to access interconnects with Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line, ANR Pipeline, Williams Natural Gas, and Natural Gas Pipeline Co. east of CIG’s Campo Junction in Baca County. El Paso Natural Gas and Northern Natural Gas could be accessed south of the junction.

Maritimes got a nod from the Commission to increase the diameter of the last mile of its Phase III project from 24 inches in diameter to 30 inches. This change is expected to ease future expansion of the Maritimes and Algonquin Gas Transmission systems with fewer environmental impacts, according to the FERC order [CP01-4-001, CP01-5-002].

The order amended FERC’s decision last December approving companion expansions of Maritimes and Algonquin. Maritimes is building an extension in a southeasterly direction through several Massachusetts counties to the East Coast where a new Algonquin line (HubLine project) will connect and extend offshore down the coast through Boston Bay to a connection with Algonquin’s existing system at Weymouth on the south side of Boston Harbor. The two pipeline projects will supply up to 230,500 Dth/d to the gas-starved New England region and are targeted for service by November of this year.

In another order amending a certificate, Duke Energy’s Egan Hub Partners LP got clearance to build and operate a third storage cavern at the Jennings Salt Dome in Acadia Parish, LA.

The order amends a June 2001 decision in which FERC authorized Egan Hub to expand the total maximum operating capacity of its two-cavern facility to 21 Bcf (including 16 Bcf of working gas) from 15.5 Bcf. Egan has assured the Commission that the maximum operating capacity of its storage facility will remain at 21 Bcf, even with the third cavern. Further, it said the capacity of the third cavern would not exceed 4.6 Bcf.

“Adding a third cavern, rather than merely increasing the capacity of the two existing caverns, will provide greater flexibility and efficiency to the Egan Storage Facility, thereby enhancing reliability and its customers’ ability to manage gas supplies,” the order said [CP01-66-001]. Also, “the project will expedite Egan Hub’s ability to provide services while continuing expansion activities.”

Egan’s storage facilities interconnect with a number of interstate pipelines, including ANR, Columbia Gulf Transmission, Trunkline Gas, Tennessee Gas, Texas Eastern Transmission, Texas Gas Transmission and Florida Gas Transmission.

Iroquois Gas won approval to add 10,000 horsepower of new compression to provide up to 70,000 Dth/d of gas to Athens Generating Co. LP for use at a new generation facility to be built in Athens, NY. The 1,080 MW gas-fired generation plant is currently under construction and is expected to be in operation on Aug. 1, 2003. Iroquois estimates the cost of its compression project at $16.4 million.

Reef International LLC, which is owned by Tidelands Oil & Gas Corp., received a presidential permit to construct a five-mile pipeline to initially transport 5 MMcf/d of gas from Eagle Pass in Maverick County, TX, to Coahuila, Mexico. The 12-inch diameter pipeline could be expanded to ship 15 MMcf/d at a later time.

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