Southern Natual Gas (SNG) is soliciting bids for gas storage and delivery capacity from a proposed natural gas storage cavern that would be constructed by affiliate Petal Gas Storage LLC at the existing Petal storage field in Forrest County, MS. The company plans to have the 5 Bcf salt cavern with 500 MMcf/d of deliverability in service in April 2007.

SNG also has signed a letter of intent to purchase from Petal an undivided interest in the capacity of an existing 60-mile, 36-inch diameter pipeline that connects the storage field with SNG’s system in Clark County, MS. The letter of intent for the storage project is subject to obtaining adequate customer subscriptions to sustain the economic feasibility of the project and necessary regulatory and board approvals, SNG said in a bulletin board notice.

The storage project will have a 10-day withdrawal service at 500 MMcf/d and a ratcheted 25-30-day injection service of 167-260 MMcf/d depending on the level of gas in storage. The storage facility also has pipeline connections with Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line, Tennessee Gas, Destin and Gulf South.

SNG proposes rates of 17 cents/Dth/month for storage capacity with a base gas surcharge of 3 cents/Dth/month and a 1 cent/Dth withdrawal and injection charge. The Petal pipeline reservation charge is $1.25/Dth/month. The fuel charge is 1.5% on injections only.

The open season begins today and will end Jan. 14, 2004. Call Paul Brown for details at (205) 325-7316.

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