FERC on Thursday approved Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s and National Fuel Gas Supply Corp.’s proposal to increase deliverability at their jointly-owned Hebron Storage Field in Pennsylvania, and it gave the go-ahead to a companion project that calls for the expansion of firm transportation capacity on Tennessee’s Line 300 in Pennsylvania.

The joint Tennessee-National Fuel project will expand the Hebron Storage Field deliverability by 63,900 Dth/d to 502,000 Dth/d. The two companies will share the incremental increase in deliverability capacity, with Tennessee getting approximately 51,500 Dth/d and National Fuel receiving 12,400 Dth/d, according to the FERC order [CP05-352]. They also will share the cost of the project, estimated at $284,175.

Tennessee, which is owned by El Paso Corp., will commit its share of the additional deliverability capacity at the Hebron Storage site to its companion Northeast ConneXion-New York/New Jersey project, which also was cleared by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Thursday. The project calls for the construction of six miles of pipeline looping on Tennessee’s Line 300 in Bradford and Susquehanna Counties in Pennsylvania; the addition of compression facilities at its existing Compressor Station 313 in Potter County, PA; an upgrade of its existing Ramsey Meter Station in Bergen County, NJ; and the use of additional incremental capacity resulting from the replacement of compression facilities at Station 325 in Sussex County, NJ [CP05-355].

When completed, the ConneXion-NY/NJ project will add 50,000 Dth/d of incremental firm transportation capacity and 51,500 Dth/d of incremental storage deliverability, thereby increasing Tennessee’s ability to withdraw gas from the Hebron Storage Field and move it east along Tennessee’s existing Line 300 to markets in the Northeast, the order said..

Following a reverse open season and open season, Tennessee and Public Service Electric and Gas Co. executed two precedent agreements, each for a 10-year term, for all of Tennessee’s firm transportation and Hebron deliverability capacity that will be created by the proposed expansions. Tennessee previously indicated that the ConneXion-New York/New Jersey project, which will cost approximately $38.8 million, will be in service in late 2006.

Tennessee also has filed an application for a Northeast ConneXion-New England project, which would raise capacity on the pipeline’s system to the New England region by about 136,300 Dth/d. The project will require the installation of additional compression along the mainline in New York and Massachusetts to provide the increased capacity. Tennessee’s application for the project is still pending at FERC, according to an El Paso spokesman. Tennessee expects the expansion to be in service for the winter of 2007-2008.

The 14,200-mile Tennessee pipeline system stretches from the Mexican border to Canada and provides 6.5 Bcf/d of natural gas to markets in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

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