With Williams’ Western Frontier pipeline from northern Colorado to Kansas and Oklahoma being shelved and other Rockies pipeline projects in doubt because of the financial crisis gripping the industry, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP has stepped in with a new pipeline plan of its own. The company is proposing a system that would deliver gas from the Powder River Basin and other Wyoming gas producing areas to markets in the Midcontinent and Midwest eventually terminating in Kansas City.

The 411-mile, 24-inch diameter Advantage pipeline with 27,000 hp of compression would extend from the Cheyenne Hub in northern Colorado to interconnections with Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America in Lincoln County, KS, and Northern Natural Gas and Kinder Morgan’s Pony Express line in Ottawa County, KS. The proposed system would have a design capacity of 330,000 Dth/d.

Using Kinder Morgan’s Pony Express line, an incremental capacity of 120,000 Dth/d would be available downstream of Ottawa County to various delivery points along the Pony Express route, including interconnects with Kansas Gas Service, Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line and Williams, terminating at a point in Jackson County, MO.

The additional infrastructure would address rapidly increasing gas supplies in Wyoming, providing utilities and end-use markets access to a growing supply source as well as providing producers and marketers with greater access to liquid Midcontinent pipelines and markets, Kinder Morgan officials said. A Kinder Morgan spokesman said the company found that Powder River producers prefer a small 24-inch diameter line to the larger 36-inch pipeline projects, such as Western Frontier, that were being proposed to delivery gas out of the Rockies.

Kinder Morgan is holding a nonbinding open season through Sept. 6 to gather expressions of interest in its Advantage project. For details, contact Randy Holstlaw at (303) 914-4517, Max Lawton at (303) 914-4622 or Joe Sterrett at (303) 763-3246.

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