Arlington Storage Co. Wednesday asked FERC for authorization to place its entire Thomas Corners Natural Gas Storage Project in southern New York in service by early November.

The storage facility began offering interim interruptible service in late August (see Daily GPI, Aug. 28). Arlington Storage said it expects to complete the remaining facilities (storage wells, compressor station and other facilities) so it can begin providing firm storage and other firm services from the facility on Nov. 8 [CP08-96].

The Thomas Corners field, a converted natural gas production field in Bath, NY, has working capacity of approximately 7 Bcf, along with maximum withdrawal and injection capabilities of 140 MMcf/d and 70 MMcf/d, respectively. The project has sold out all available capacity, according to Arlington Storage, a subsidiary of Kansas City, MO-based Inergy LP.

The new capacity will be especially critical along the Mid-Atlantic-Northeast pipeline corridor, which serves major industrial and electric generating gas consumption markets, said Arlington Storage. It noted that gas supply is being brought to these markets not only from traditional Gulf Coast supply sources, but also from Canada, the Rocky Mountains and Dominion Resources’ liquefied natural gas import terminal at Cove Point, MD.

The Thomas Corners Storage Field, which the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved in late 2008, interconnects with Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s Line 400 and Columbia Gas Transmission’s A-5 line, which accesses the Millennium Pipeline (see Daily GPI, Dec. 19, 2008).

Inergy acquired Arlington Storage in late 2007 (see Daily GPI, Sept. 6, 2007). In addition to Thomas Corners, Arlington Storage is the majority owner and operator of Steuben Gas Storage Co., which has a storage facility in Steuben County, NY, with 6.2 Bcf of working capacity. Inergy also owns the Stagecoach storage operation in New York.

Inergy said it controls more than 40 Bcf of working storage capacity in the region, making it one of the largest independent gas storage operators in the Northeast.

©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.