FERC Thursday issued a certificate to Atmos Pipeline and Storage LLC to build a 25 Bcf storage project near Fort Necessity in Franklin Parish in northeastern Louisiana.

The Fort Necessity Gas Storage Project calls for the construction of three underground salt dome caverns in the Fort Necessity salt dome formation, approximately 12 miles south-southwest of Winnsboro, LA. The three natural gas storage caverns would have total capacity of nearly 24.75 Bcf, of which 15 Bcf would be working gas capacity [CP09-22].

The proposed storage facility would have an average injection rate of 375 MMcf/d and a maximum injection rate of approximately 500 MMcf/d, while the average withdrawal rate would be 750 MMcf/d and maximum withdrawal rate would be approximately 1.5 Bcf/d, according to Atmos Pipeline, a subsidiary of Dallas, TX-based Atmos Energy Corp.

The storage project would tie in with four pipelines: Tennessee Gas Pipeline, Columbia Gulf Transmission, ANR Pipeline and Regency Energy Partners LP.

Atmos Pipeline proposes to build the project in two phases over a five-year period, with the first two caverns going into service by December 2011 and the last cavern becoming operational by August 2013.

Noting its lack of market power in the region, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted Atmos Pipeline’s request to charge market-based rates for firm and interruptible storage, hub and wheeling services.

“The Commission finds that Atmos’ [market-power] analysis demonstrates that its proposed project will be in a highly competitive area where numerous storage service alternatives exist for potential customers. The Commission also finds that Atmos’ analysis properly identifies good alternatives, and that Atmos’ entry will increase the storage alternatives in the Gulf Coast production region,” the FERC order said.

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