Gulfstream Natural Gas System LLC will hold an open season from June 1 to Aug. 31 to gauge interest in an expansion of its existing pipeline system to serve Florida’s expanding market, the company said last week. The resulting expansion could add as much as 750,000 Dth/d of capacity to the pipeline for a total of 2 Bcf/d.

Phase III of Gulfstream, currently under way, takes the pipeline to its currently certificated 1.1 Bcf/d. A Phase IV project will bring capacity to about 1.25 Bcf/d in 2008. “For all practical purposes, once the facilities are installed in 2008 then we’ll be fully subscribed at 1.25 Bcf/d,” Gulfstream Vice President Brad Reese told NGI. While it’s too soon to tell who will sign up during the upcoming open season, Reese said the majority of additional capacity is expected to be taken by gas-fired power generation. Overall, gas demand growth in Florida is being driven by population growth of about 2% per year that will make Florida the third largest state, behind California and Texas, by 2011, Reese said.

“The good news is the supply push projects [from North and East Texas and North Louisiana] are giving us a much broader base of supplies to draw on,” Reese said. “The supply diversity gets a real uptick with all the supply push projects targeting Gulfstream. But the project we’re talking about now with the open season is purely a market pull based on population growth and in turn the increased use of natural gas in electric generation.

“We believe at Gulfstream that there’s new gas-fired generation that will be planned in the early part of next decade that in the event the planned coal-fired generation is either delayed or has difficulty being sited, that the gas demand will of course be much greater. And that’s why Gulfstream’s announcement for this open season to provide volumes up to another 750 [Dth] a day is in that order of magnitude in order to be able to supply as many of those needs as possible in the early part of the next decade.”

New service from the mainline expansion is anticipated to be available beginning in late 2011, pending Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and other agency approvals.

“The Florida natural gas market continues to experience robust growth at rates far above the national average,” Reese said. “We expect this growth will continue through the next decade. Gulfstream will be fully subscribed in 2009 and this mainline expansion will provide our customers with an opportunity to address their future energy needs with flexible, reliable transportation services for 2011 and beyond.”

Additional open season details will be available on Gulfstream’s website at www.1line.gulfstreamgas.com starting June 1. Shippers desiring to secure capacity will be required to submit a nonbinding nomination and a refundable deposit.

Placed into service in May 2002, Gulfstream Natural Gas System is a 691-mile pipeline with the capacity to deliver 1.1 Bcf/d to Florida. The pipeline is a joint development of Williams and Spectra Energy.

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