National Fuel Gas Co. subsidiary National Fuel Gas Supply Corp. (NFGS) is launching an open season to provide shippers with access to long-term contracts for firm storage capacity of up to 8.5 Bcf at locations in New York and Pennsylvania.

The incremental storage space, which will be available upon the completion of expansions at several existing underground natural gas storage fields, is being developed in concert with the West-to-East and Appalachian Lateral pipeline transportation projects. The incremental capacity will be phased in over a two-year period, with the initial phase projected to go in service on April 1, 2011. The open season will close on Oct. 3 at 11 a.m. EDT.

According to National Fuel Gas spokeswoman Julie Coppola Cox, the current storage facility candidates for expansion are the East Branch facility near Ludlow, PA, the Galbraith facility near Brookville, PA, and the Tuscarora facility, which is near Addison, NY.

NFGS also announced that the deadline for the Appalachian Lateral open season launched on Aug. 5 will be extended until Oct. 3 at 11 a.m. EDT to coincide with the storage expansion open season. The Appalachian Lateral open season offers capacity on a proposed pipeline system that will provide new interstate pipeline infrastructure to bring to growing Northeast markets the new gas supplies to be produced from the Marcellus Shale and other Appalachian producing formations (see Daily GPI, Aug. 6). The Appalachian Lateral may serve as a complement to NFGS’s previously announced West-to-East project, which is designed to move Rockies Express gas supply from Ohio to the Northeast.

More information about the transportation and storage services being offered with the open seasons can be obtained at www.nationalfuelgas.com, or by calling National Fuel’s Interstate Marketing Department at (716) 857-7740.

The pipeline and storage segment operations of National Fuel Gas are carried out by NFGS and Empire State Pipeline. These companies provide natural gas transportation and storage services to affiliated and nonaffiliated companies through an integrated system of nearly 3,000 miles of pipelines and 31 underground natural gas storage fields in western New York and western Pennsylvania.

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