Responding swiftly, FERC on Tuesday awarded a certificate to Wyoming Interstate Company Ltd. (WIC) to build a lateral and compression expansion in southern Wyoming that would deliver increasing natural gas production from the Central Rocky Mountain region to existing markets.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a strong champion of industry efforts to expand the pipeline infrastructure in the Rocky Mountains, may have set a new record with the WIC project by issuing the certificate less than two months after the company filed its application on March 29.

The so-called Echo Springs project will receive and transport up to 116,000 Dth/d from the Williams Field Services’ gas processing plant located in Sweetwater County, WY, to an interconnect with WIC’s mainline in Carbon County, WY, and will provide additional natural gas supplies for existing shippers on the WIC pipeline system. Both counties are situated in the southern part of the state and border Colorado.

The estimated $11.6 million project calls for El Paso-owned Wyoming Interstate to build approximately 5.3 miles of 16-inch diameter supply lateral pipeline in Sweetwater and Carbon Counties, a 2,370 horsepower compressor in Sweetwater County, and metering receipt facilities in Carbon County [CP04-90].

WIC said it has entered into a 10-year precedent agreement with BP Energy Co. for the 116,000 Dth/d of firm transportation capacity to be created by the lateral/compression expansion. The pipeline plans to charge BP a negotiated rate of $0.058/Dth for the contracted capacity.

The Echo Springs project also will create additional interruptible transportation capacity, which will be available to all shippers on WIC’s system. The pipeline said it intends to charge shippers, who use the facilities on an alternate or secondary basis, an incremental recourse rate of $0.0699 for this capacity.

“The Echo Springs project facilities have been designed to [provide] a new source of gas that will be transported on new facilities. Therefore, the proposed project will not replace any firm transportation on any other existing pipeline…On balance, the benefits of WIC’s expansion project outweigh any minimal potential adverse impacts,” said the FERC order. It concluded the WIC system expansion “is required by the public convenience and necessity.”

The Williston Interstate system extends from western Wyoming and the Powder River Basin to various pipeline interconnects near Cheyenne, WY, in the southern part of the state.

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