FERC at its Wednesday meeting issued Kern River a certificate to build its long-awaited 2003 expansion project, which would more than double the existing capacity of the Wyoming-to-California pipeline. The move opens the door for the construction of a huge new conduit for nearly 900 MMcf/d of additional natural gas to exit the Rocky Mountain region and head to the flood of new power plants in Nevada and California starting next May.

The $1.2 billion project would bring the total system capacity to 1.73 Bcf/d. Under the company’s plans, the project would loop about 717 miles of the pipeline’s 922-mile system from Wyoming to Bakersfield, CA. It would also include the addition of 163,700 horsepower of compression at three new and six existing compressor stations. The FERC order requires the expansion facilities to be built and in operation within two years [CP01-422].

The Commission rejected a request by BP America Production Co. and BP Energy Co. for rehearing of the preliminary determination (PD) order in February. Both claimed the Kern River expansion would degrade service to existing shippers at Wheeler Ridge in California. But FERC countered that “Kern River is proposing to construct sufficient facilities at Wheeler Ridge to accommodate the increased sales of primary delivery point capacity on its system, and, thus, contrary to BP’s arguments, Kern River would not be overselling its capacity.”

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the California State Lands Commission in late June issued a joint final environmental impact statement that was favorable to the project (see Daily GPI, June 24). At the time, the agencies said that construction of Kern River ‘s mammoth expansion would be an “environmentally acceptable action,” provided the pipeline adheres to its proposed mitigation measures and complies with the recommended mitigation initiatives.

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