The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Wednesday gave the green light to Prairie Energy Center to put the first of three caverns into service in Evangeline Parish, LA, about 50 miles from Henry Hub. The storage project, which was authorized by FERC in May 2005, will provide 24 Bcf of working gas capacity when completely finished, with each cavern storing 8 Bcf. The facility will be capable of withdrawing gas at a rate of up to 2.4 Bcf/d and of injecting gas at a rate of up to 1.2 Bcf/d. The entire project is targeted for completion by the fourth quarter of 2010. Pine Prairie is an indirect subsidiary of PAA/Vulcan Gas Storage LLC, in which Plains All American Pipeline LP owns a 50% interest.

Petal Gas Storage LLC has asked FERC for approval to increase the maximum storage capacity of a single cavern (Cavern No. 8) at its Forrest County, MS, facility by approximately 1.2 Bcf. Petal proposes to increase the cavern’s capacity to 9.058 Bcf from its current 7.9 Bcf capacity. As a result, the cavern’s working gas capacity would build to 5.859 from 5 Bcf, while the base gas would expand to 3.199 Bcf from 2.9 Bcf The storage company said the increase in maximum capacity would not require any additional construction.

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