Spectra Energy alone has put into service more than $5 billion worth of natural gas infrastructure projects over the past four years, said company President Greg Ebel Wednesday. When the projects involving its midstream joint venture with ConocoPhillips are added, it comes closer to $8 billion.

For Spectra Energy alone, “that’s about a billion dollars a year…in new projects in North America. Some of the big ones…we’re obviously building a new pipeline into the New Jersey-Manhattan area, which is very constrained with respect to supplies [reaching the area]. We are also building a lot [in] Northeast British Columbia [BC],” he said during a briefing with reporters in Washington, DC.

“We are currently spending $1.5 billion [expanding] processing in Northeast British Columbia, which is one of the largest shale plays that are out there, and I would expect we’ll get our fair share of additional expansions, including a pipeline to the coast” to serve the proposed Kitimat LNG terminal, which is slated for operation in 2015. The terminal, which would be sited in northwestern BC, is a three-way joint venture of Apache Corp., EOG Resources Corp. and Encana Corp. that could be approved early next year (see Daily GPI, Oct. 5).

In the race to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Western Canada to Asian markets, the Kitimat terminal may have an advantage because it includes the construction of a pipeline in a right-of-way of a pipeline that was built year ago. The project partners plan to build the Pacific Trails Pipeline, which would link the LNG terminal to Spectra Energy’s gas processing complex in Summit Lake, BC. The 287-mile line would have 1 Bcf/d of capacity.

“I feel very good about our position to compete,” Ebel said. “As the largest pipeline-processor in British Columbia, I like our chances. We are the only pipeline that is between Northeast British Columbia production assets and actually Kitimat.” But he added that he wouldn’t be surprised to see some joint ventures created. “It wouldn’t be the first time that you saw joint ventures along the way.

“In places like the Eagle Ford [in South Texas], we’re building new pipelines, [as well as in the] Permian Basin through our DCP Midstream business, which is a joint venture with ConocoPhillips…to bring a lot of that liquids [production] to the Gulf Coast region (Mont Belvieu), [and] then from Conway [KS] to Mont Belvieu another approximately $1 billion project is in the works,” Ebel noted.

When the DCP Midstream projects are added to the $5 billion in Spectra Energy projects, “you’d probably have about $8 billion worth of projects,” he said.

Ebel wore two hats in addressing reporters Wednesday. In addition to being the head of Spectra Energy, he had just been named chairman of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA), which represents interstate natural gas pipelines.

Despite the hold placed on pipeline safety legislation by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), both Ebel and INGAA President Don Santa are optimistic that the bill will clear Congress this year (see Daily GPI, Oct. 7). “We think with education we should be able to get that [legislation] through before the end of the year,” Santa said. Pipeline safety legislation “represents probably one of the few things that will be able to pass in this session of Congress,” he said.

At the Natural Gas Roundtable Wednesday, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, also said he would like to see pipeline safety legislation move in this Congress. Moreover, Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who met with INGAA members Wednesday, expressed his support for the pipe safety bills pending in Congress, according to Santa and Ebel.

Santa expects the two House pipe safety bills — which emerged from the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and House Energy and Commerce Committee — to be reconciled “probably in short order,” and then voted on by the full House (see Daily GPI, Sept. 22; Sept. 9). That bill would then be sent back to the Senate, where Paul could place a hold on it.

Paul’s main complaint about the Senate bill is that it grandfathers older pipelines from having to install certain safety technology: remote-controlled shutoff valves. Santa countered that the grandfathering language has been “mischaracterized” as a “sweeping exemption.”

Instead, he said the grandfather clause addresses the maximum allowable operating pressure (MAOP) for pipelines that were built prior to 1970, or prior to the federal safety regulations. Santa said INGAA has voluntarily committed to developing a new protocol for doing a very extensive records search on old pipelines and establishing the date of records to support that MAOP.

“The definition of grandfathering is not what most people think it is,” Ebel said.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Philip Moeller, who also met with INGAA members Wednesday, stressed the need for better integration of electricity and gas infrastructures. “Moeller recognized the importance of the electric and gas industry coming together in a more structured format to make sure that all new gas-fired generation is supported by a good pipeline infrastructure,” Ebel said.

“Half of the generation that’s been produced in the last 10 years has been natural gas generation. That’s created the need for better integration between electric and gas pipelines.”

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