Add another company to the growing roster of pipelines that are contemplating projects to take Rocky Mountain natural gas eastward. National Fuel Gas Co. says it is seriously exploring the prospect of building a 324-mile pipeline to deliver Rockies gas from Ohio, where the Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) will terminate, to the Corning, NY, market.

The pipeline project, which is being called the “West to East Project,” would be the largest ever tackled by National Fuel. It would deliver to New York markets the Rockies natural gas that will be transported over the 1,600-mile REX pipeline. The third and final leg of the REX pipeline, known as REX East, will end at Clarington, OH, and a number of pipeline companies — such as National Fuel — are jumping on the bandwagon to build projects to take the Rockies gas farther eastward.

National Fuel’s proposed line, which would move up to 700,000 Dth/d, would be a link between REX and the Millennium Pipeline that is under construction, according to National Fuel’s Julie Coppola Cox. And in addition to Rockies gas, she said the pipeline would tap into gas supplies from Appalachia.

The company held its first open season in March of this year. It “generated very strong interest,” Cox said.

“We’re on that road” toward filing an application at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said Cox. “We’re having a number of post-open season meetings with shippers.” The company anticipates that the project, which would cost up to $725 million, will be ready for operation by 2010-2011.

Other pipelines, including REX, have had the same idea — to take the Rockies gas beyond Clarington. In late October, REX launched an open season to solicit market interest for its Northeast Express Project, a 375-mile extension that would carry gas from the original REX endpoint in Clarington to Princeton, NJ (see Daily GPI, Oct. 30).

Subject to regulatory approval, the pipe extension could go into service in late 2010 and transport up to 1.5 million Dth/d, said joint sponsors Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, Sempra Pipelines & Storage and ConocoPhillips.

In September, Spectra Energy’s Texas Eastern Transmission completed an open season for its proposed Northern Bridge, which would carry the Clarington-bound gas supplies to the Philadelphia-Camden, PA, metropolitan area (see Daily GPI, Sept. 5). Results of the open season have not been disclosed.

In August, Dominion disclosed that it had secured firm, long-term commitments to receive gas from REX and deliver it to major markets in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic through its Dominion Hub I project (see Daily GPI, Aug. 17). And according to Pace Global Energy Services, several other pipeline companies are shopping projects (see Daily GPI, Oct. 23).

The first 328-mile segment of REX, which runs from the Meeker Hub in Rio Blanco County, CO, to the Wamsutter Hub in Sweetwater County, WY, and to the Cheyenne Hub in Weld County, CO, is in service and has a current capacity of 500,000 Dth/d. REX West, the segment from Cheyenne Hub to Audrain County, MO, is on schedule for an in-service date of Jan. 1. Construction on REX West is currently under way in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. REX East, the segment from Audrain County to Clarington, is in the permitting stage and has a scheduled in-service date of Dec. 31, 2008.

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