El Paso Corp. awaits a right-of-way (ROW) grant from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to launch construction of the Ruby Pipeline to carry natural gas from the Rocky Mountains to the West Coast, but construction remains on track to begin late this month or in early July, an official told NGI last week.

A BLM official late last month told an Associated Press reporter that the ROW grant from BLM would not be issued before July, but the “July estimate…is conservative in our view,” El Paso spokesman Richard Wheatley said.

“Ruby is diligently pushing for earlier agency action and remains confident we can beat BLM’s estimate. We don’t believe the process will take another five-to-six weeks, as indicated in the AP story.”

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in April issued a certificate for the 675-mile, 42-inch diameter Ruby Pipeline project, which would move 1.5 Bcf/d of Rockies gas from the Opal Hub in southwest Wyoming to Malin Hub near the Oregon-California border (see NGI, April 12). FERC issued the certificate because it said the pipeline had cleared the hurdles covered in the final environmental impact statement.

“For Ruby to receive a projectwide Notice to Proceed and Construct from FERC — and then to begin construction — the project must first receive a right-of-way grant from BLM,” Wheatley noted.

“BLM, in turn, believes that it cannot issue its right-of-way grant until so-called memoranda of agreement (MOA) have been signed by each of four State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPO) in Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and Oregon.” The pipeline would cross into portions of those four states.

The MOAs for the SHPOs provide for the protection, testing, mitigation and treatment of any cultural/archaeological/historic properties affected by a project’s construction under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.

Draft MOAs “are in place for Utah and Wyoming, so far,” Wheatley said. “The FERC and Ruby personnel are dealing with the various SHPO staffs on a daily — if not hourly — basis.” And El Paso expects the draft MOAs for Nevada and Oregon “will be transmitted by FERC to the Nevada and Oregon SHPOs in time for a mid-June BLM right-of-way grant,” he said.

The ROW grant from BLM may not be issued “until the technical process under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act, which culminates in issuance by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service of a comprehensive Biological Opinion, is complete.”

The Biological Opinion “will be issued very soon — in a matter of several federal business days,” he predicted. “With the Biological Opinion and four MOAs completed within the first half of June, according to our estimates, we believe BLM will be able to expeditiously issue its right-of-way grant shortly thereafter.”

Once BLM issues the ROW grant, “the essential next step toward commencement of construction is issuance of FERC’s projectwide Notice to Proceed and Construct. We estimate that will be issued in approximately seven to 10 days following BLM’s right-of-way grant, or about late June.”

The cost for the entire project is still estimated at $3 billion, Wheatley said. Ruby’s project financing was completed in May (see NGI, May 10).

Asked if the draft MOU could be delayed in Oregon because of political motives by sponsors of proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects (see NGI, May 31), Wheatley said he didn’t know.

“I can’t speculate on that…LNG is a different breed of animal from a buried pipeline.”

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