FERC Friday awarded a favorable draft environmental review to Gulf Crossing Pipeline Co. LLC and Gulf South Pipeline LP, subsidiaries of Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP, to build a major pipeline and associated facilities that would transport gas from supply regions in Texas and Oklahoma to the Perryville Hub in northern Louisiana.

In a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS), the staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission concluded that the Gulf Crossing Project, with appropriate mitigating measures, “would have limited adverse environmental impact.” The DEIS is the first major hurdle in the certification process at FERC. Gulf Crossing still must receive a final environmental impact statement before the Commission rules on its request for a certificate.

Gulf Crossing plans to build a 353.2-mile, 42-inch diameter pipeline and associated compression facilities (100,734 hp) extending from Sherman, TX, to an interconnect with affiliate Gulf South Pipeline’s Tallulah Compressor Station in Madison Parish, LA. It also proposes to lease up to 165,000 Dth/d of upstream capacity on the Oklahoma intrastate pipeline system of Enogex and up to 1.4 Bcf/d of capacity 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 Project [CP07-398, CP07-401]. Some shippers are challenging the leasing of the Enogex capacity (see NGI, Oct. 29).

As part of the project, affiliate Gulf South plans to build approximately 17.8 miles of pipeline loop between its Tallulah Compressor Station and its Harrisville Compressor Station located in Simpson County, MS, add 30,000 hp of compression to its Harrisville Compressor Station, and abandon by lease up to 1.4 Bcf/d of natural gas capacity to Gulf Crossing.

Gulf Crossing said it expects the $1.1 billion project, which would provide up to 1.65 Bcf/d of capacity, to be in service by Oct. 1, 2008. Devon Energy Corp., Enterprise Products Partners LP and Crosstex Energy LP are among the companies that have already committed to transportation capacity on the proposed line.

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