FERC on Wednesday gave Transwestern Pipeline the go-ahead to sell its East of Canadian River (ECR) pipeline facilities to a Dallas, TX-based midstream company for an undisclosed amount.

The transaction calls for the transfer of 115 miles of 12- and 16-inch diameter pipeline laterals, one compressor station and related facilities located in Texas and Oklahoma to PVR Midstream LLC, which owns 3,400 miles of gathering lines and three natural gas processing plants in the two states. Following the sale, the transferred pipe facilities will be reclassified as gathering in nature and exempt from FERC jurisdiction [CP06-59].

The ECR facilities are located on the northeast end of the portion of Transwestern’s system known as its Panhandle Lateral, which was built to access Anadarko Basin gas supplies and to transport the gas to nearby intrastate or interstate pipelines and to Transwestern’s mainline for sale to the Arizona-California market.

The ECR pipeline facilities are no longer a critical part of Transwestern’s core interstate transportation business, the pipeline said. The facilities have the ability to deliver 60,000 MMBtu/d, but only about half of that has been utilized over the past 12 months, it noted.

PVR has agreed to provide all current Transwestern customers with an equivalent gathering service, at rates (including fuel) that are no higher than those currently charged by Transwestern, the pipeline said.

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