A “big portion” of the capacity on the new Gulf Crossing Pipeline will become available Wednesday, a spokeswoman for parent Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP said Monday.

“Upon completion of [current] maintenance, the Gulf Crossing locations listed below and all the Enogex lease locations and Gulf South [Pipeline] lease locations will be available for July except for the South Raymond [to Texas Eastern Transmission] delivery location…The current volumetric firm contracts will be used for July 2009 business,” including:

In related action, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Friday approved Gulf Crossing’s request to bulk up compression on its new pipeline to add more than 670 MMcf/d of capacity.

Gulf Crossing, which will transport gas from supply regions in Texas and Oklahoma to the Perryville Hub in northeastern Louisiana, asked FERC to amend its April 2008 certificate so that it can increase the compression hp at its proposed Mira Compressor Station in Caddo Parish, LA, to 35,500 hp from the originally proposed 20,604 hp. The reconfiguration of the Mira station will increase Gulf Crossing’s firm transportation capacity to 1.726 Bcf/d from 1.05 Bcf/d.

“At the time it filed its application for the Gulf Crossing Project, Gulf Crossing had entered into binding precedent agreements with shippers for 1.05 Bcf/d of capacity for terms ranging from five to 10 years. Since then, Gulf Crossing states that one existing contracting shipper and another new shipper have contracted for additional service to raise the total capacity under contract to 1.7 Bcf/d,” the FERC order said [CP07-398]. Devon Energy Corp., Enterprise Products Partners LP and Crosstex Energy LP are among the companies that have committed to transportation capacity on the line.

In addition, Gulf Crossing said the reconfiguration of the Mira Compressor Station would permit Gulf Crossing to provide “short-haul” transportation from Bennington, OK, to a proposed delivery point with Natural Gas Pipeline of America (NGPL) upstream of the Mira Compressor Station.

“We find that Gulf Crossing’s system is properly designed for a maximum capacity of 1.726 Bcf/d of long-haul firm transportation. Additionally, we find that the proposal will allow Gulf Crossing to provide an additional 0.103 Bcf/d of short-haul transportation from Bennington, OK, to an interconnection with NGPL upstream of the Mira Compressor Station,” the order said..

The Commission also approved Gulf Crossing’s request for an extension until June 2010 to construct and make available for service the Mira Compressor Station.

Gulf Crossing is a 356.3-mile, 42-inch diameter pipeline extending from Sherman in Grayson County, TX, to an interconnect with affiliate Gulf South Pipeline’s Tallulah Compressor Station in Madison Parish, LA. It also has leased capacity on the Oklahoma intrastate system of Enogex and on Gulf South from Tallulah to an interconnect with Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s Station 85 in Choctaw County, AL, located at the terminus of Gulf South’s 116-mile Southeast Expansion, which went into service a year ago (see Daily GPI, June 3, 2008). FERC approved the Gulf Crossing Pipeline project in May last year (see Daily GPI, May 7, 2008).

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