Florida Gas Transmission‘s (FGT) Phase VIII Expansion was placed in service Friday as scheduled, according to Houston-based Southern Union Co. The announcement came one week after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave FGT the green light to place into service the remaining facilities associated with the $2.48 expansion to serve gas-fired power generators and utilities in Florida (see Daily GPI, March 28). The project, which FERC approved in November 2009, adds more than 483 miles of pipeline loops, laterals and mainline and installs 213,600 hp of compression at eight existing stations and one new station (see Daily GPI, Nov. 20, 2009). The project also called for FGT to acquire the existing 22.7-mile Martin Lateral from Florida Power & Light Co. (FPL), which will serve power plants in Manatee, Martin, Miami-Dade and Suwannee counties, FL. The Phase VIII Expansion is intended to create 820,000 MMBtu/d of capacity on FGT’s system from Alabama to Florida. The expansion’s Phase I facilities, which involved the construction and operation of facilities to serve FPL’s Manatee Power Plant, went into service in mid-2010. FGT proposes to transport gas to five other shippers: Florida Power Corp./Progress Energy Florida Inc.; Seminole Electric Cooperative Inc.; Tampa Electric Co.; the Orlando Utilities Commission; and the City of Tallahassee.

Millennium Pipeline is holding a binding open season through April 15 for firm transportation capacity commencing July 1 to support mainline expansions that could carry production from the Marcellus Shale. The pipeline said it has precedent agreements with two anchor shippers for its project. Service would be provided under existing rate schedules FT-1 and BH-1 to be made available through the use of currently existing capacity and upgrades to its existing system. The open season notice has been posted on Millenniums electronic bulletin board, as well as its at www.millenniumpipeline.com, where further details are provided. For information contact Stan Brownell at (845) 620-1300.

The Golden Pass LNG Terminal recently received its fifth commissioning cargo. It was delivered by the tanker Umm Slal, the first Q-Max tanker to arrive at the facility. Commissioning cargoes began arriving at Golden Pass Oct. 21, spokesman Clark Vega told NGI. All of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes have come from Qatar, he said. During the commissioning process, LNG is offloaded to cool down the facilities and is then stored at the site. The regasified LNG will eventually enter the market as the terminal enters commercial operation, Vega said. He said he could not provide any details on the future commercial operation of the terminal. Golden Pass is owned by Golden Pass LNG, a venture of Qatar Petroleum (70%), ExxonMobil Corp. (17.6%) and ConocoPhillips (12.4%).

©Copyright 2011Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.