KeySpan Energy, which has enlisted capacity in Dominion Transmission’s recently proposed Northeast Storage project, last week urged FERC to quickly certificate the proposed 9.4 Bcf of additional market area storage and an added 163,017 Dt/d of winter season firm delivery service (CP04-365). The fact that most of the capacity is already subscribed by LDCs for 10-year terms at maximum rates is evidence of the need for the facility, KeySpan said.

The mega-utility parent, whose subsidiaries include Brooklyn Union Gas and Boston Gas along with other New York and New England LDCs, pointed to testimony on the growing supply/demand imbalance in the East that was presented at the recent FERC conference on infrastructure. “Due in part to this inadequacy, the Northeast experienced severe spikes in gas prices last winter, and is currently sustaining record levels for gas prices. In addition, it is forecast that demand for gas service will continue to grow beyond existing capacity in the coming years.”

Dominion Transmission filed a certificate application in June to spend about $64.8 million to develop a depleted production reservoir in Cattaraugus County, NY as the Quinlan Storage Pool, make enhancements to its Fink/Kennedy-Lost Creek storage complex in West Virginia and modify its existing Leidy M&R station for Northeast Storage Project customers. The project would involve pipeline and compressor modifications.

The Quinlan Storage Pool would be developed with 7.9 Bcf of total capacity, including 4 Bcf of working gas and 3.9 Bcf of base gas. It will have four injection/withdrawal wells.

The pipeline proposes to use an additional 4.468 Bcf of existing authorized top gas capacity at its Fink/Kennedy-Lost Creek Storage Complex in Lewis County, WVA.

Dominion Transmission has requested an order on non-environmental issues by the end of the year and a final order by April 30, 2005. It is targeting service to begin April 1, 2006.

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