FERC Tuesday issued a favorable environmental assessment (EA) of Southern Star Central Gas Pipeline Inc.’s proposed compression expansion at its Elk City storage field near Independence, KS.

Concluding that the proposed expansion “would not constitute a major federal action,” the staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recommended that the agency order “contain a finding of no significant impact.”

The project application, which Southern Star filed at FERC in 2009, calls for the company to install a compressor station in Montgomery County in southeastern Kansas to serve the existing Elk City storage field to “help optimize performance and ensure uninterrupted natural gas service to Southern Star’s customers,” the EA said (see Daily GPI, Oct. 13, 2009).

The need for the additional compressor comes from the company’s discovery that the existing maximum capacity of the storage field is 33.3 Bcf, or 2.6 Bcf more than it originally thought, and it plans to convert 1.4 Bcf of base gas to working gas. The two combined would increase the working gas capacity of the Elk City storage field by 4 Bcf [CP10-2].

In early 2009 Owensboro, KY-based Southern Star said it had a successful open season to expand its storage capacity by 4 Bcf. The open season was in response to the numerous requests that the company has received over the years for new service, it said.

“The Midcontinent region has exhibited a growing appetite for new storage, and we believe this expansion is a great first step towards satisfying that appetite,” said CEO Jerry Morris at the time the pipeline submitted its application.

Southern Star operates an interstate natural gas transmission system spanning more than 6,000 miles in the Midwest and Midcontinent regions of the United States. The company’s pipeline facilities are located in Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Missouri, Wyoming, Colorado and Texas.

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