Sempra Energy unit Sempra Pipelines & Storage is offering up to 2.5 Bcf of firm gas storage service from a pipeline and storage expansion that would enable firm receipts and deliveries on the Gulfstream Natural Gas system at Coden, AL.

Additional receipt and delivery points will be considered, including those owned and operated by Florida Gas Transmission, Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco), Southeast Supply Header, Gulf South and Southern Natural Gas, Sempra said Monday. The open season comes in response to the need for more deliverability and load balancing in the Southeast, particularly Florida, the company said. Demand for gas from power generators and new generation development in the region is robust.

The storage services would be supported by Bay Gas Storage, a salt dome facility 40 miles north of Mobile, AL, and/or Sempra’s Mississippi Hub Storage project in Simpson County, MS. These services also would be supported by pipeline facilities and the assets and capabilities of Sempra Pipelines & Storage’s new office in Houston.

Last month Transco announced an open season through Feb. 26 for more capacity to serve the Southeast (see Daily GPI, Jan. 23a). The Mobile Bay South II expansion would offer year-round firm service on Transco’s Mobile Bay Lateral from Station 85 in Choctaw County, AL, as far south as an existing interconnection with Gulfstream in Mobile County, AL. The compression-only expansion is expected to provide up to 550,000 Dth/d of capacity as early as May 2011, subject to FERC approval.

Sempra said last summer it planned to expand Bay Gas Storage to 27 Bcf of total capacity; it currently has 11.4 Bcf of working capacity, which is fully contracted; and another 5 Bcf, which is 92% contracted and under construction with a scheduled in-service date in the first quarter of 2010. Mississippi Hub eventually will grow to 30 Bcf capacity. Its first 6 Bcf phase is under construction with 4 Bcf of that capacity already under contract, the company said (see Daily GPI, Aug. 8, 2008). Last month Mississippi Hub LLC was granted an extension of the completion date for its project by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see Daily GPI, Jan. 23b).

Sempra Pipelines & Storage, through its subsidiary Sempra Midstream Inc., is seeking nonbinding bid proposals for terms of three years and longer with service beginning in August 2010. Bids will be accepted until the close of business on Feb. 25. For more information, contact Russell Murrell at (281) 423-2789 or rmurrell@semprapipelines.com.

©Copyright 2009Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.