Less than two months after FERC approved its Medicine BowLateral, Wyoming Interstate Co. Ltd. (WIC) last week was back atthe Commission seeking a second-phase expansion of the line to add120 MDth/d of capacity. WIC also is laying the groundwork for athird expansion to further meet its contractual commitments withproducers tapping into the prolific coal-bed methane (CBM) reservesin the Power River Basin in Wyoming.

The CBM producers “have signed on for increasing contractamounts over a period of four years. The project was designed tomeet the initial capacity needs at this time, to then increase[capacity] to 380 MDth/d next year, and then there’ll be anadditional expansion following that,” said Robert Stovall, aspokesman for affiliate Colorado Interstate Gas (CIG), whichoperates all of WIC’s assets, including Medicine Bow.

The $12 million expansion would add 7,170 horsepower ofcompression and 5.6 miles of 24-inch pipeline, increasing thecapacity of Medicine Bow – which currently is being constructed -to 380 MDth/d from 260 Dth/d. The lateral is expected to be inservice by the end of this year, and the proposed expansion has atargeted in-service date of Oct. 1, 2000. Stovall had no details onthe third-phase expansion that’s planned.

The Medicine Bow lateral would extend 150 miles from thesouthern edge of the Powder River Basin to WIC’s mainline southwestof Cheyenne, WY. The $78 million lateral would connect WIC’smainline with the Fort Union Gas Gathering project, a 106-milesystem that has just been completed by a consortium of fivecompanies.

The proposed expansion is needed to meet the growing needs ofproducers in Power River, Stovall said. The basin “is a significantsource of gas…..and it’s just beginning to be developed.”

Susan Parker

©Copyright 1999 Intelligence Press, Inc. All rightsreserved. The preceding news report may not be republished orredistributed in whole or in part without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.