At the request of potential new shippers, Petal Gas StorageL.L.C. has extended by three weeks its open season to determinewhether there’s enough market demand for further expansion of itstwo storage caverns in Mississippi.

The open season, which was scheduled to end April 14, has beenextended until May 5, at which time Petal will assess whetherthere’s sufficient interest to add another 5 Bcf of working gascapacity by leaching a third cavern, said Vice President DavidHayden. If there is, he noted Petal would seek FERC approval of theproject later this year with project completion targeted by June2003.

“We feel very good about the [open season] results so far,” henoted, adding that “numerous potential customers” have expressed aninterest in acquiring storage capacity, but they want “more time”to make their final decision.

Petal kicked off this latest open season within days after FERCapproved an expansion to boost the working gas capacity of thestorage company’s two Mississippi facilities to 10 Bcf by thescheduled in-service date of June 2001 (See NGI, March 27, 2000).

In the meantime, controversy continues to swirl around Petal’spending application at the Commission that seeks to add 500 MMcf/dof deliverability capacity to the storage company’s existingcapacity of about 320 MMcf/d by mid-2001.

Southern Company, which signed up for much of the expandedstorage volumes planned by Petal, now appears to be a strongchampion of the proposed deliverability expansion, even though ithas been amended to exclude three pipeline interconnects that Petalhad committed itself to in Southern’s precedent agreement. Althoughit previously expressed some reservations about the revisions,Southern now has urged FERC to process the application as “quicklyas practicable.”

Based on Southern’s initial concern, Commission staff earlierthis month threatened to dismiss the deliverability expansionproject for a lack of market support unless Petal could proveotherwise (see NGI, April 10)

Southern responded to staff’s actions in a letter to FERC,saying that it was fully behind the Petal project and had no plansto withdraw. It “opposes the dismissal” of Petal’s project.Southern said the proposed deliverability project, which entails anadditional 20,000 horsepower of compression, a storage header loopand an expanded interconnect with affiliate Tennessee Gas Pipeline,was a “necessary complement” to Petal’s storage-capacity expansionthat FERC approved.

Susan Parker

©Copyright 2000 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.