Expansion

Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP), which in the past month acquired an interstate natural gas pipeline and announced an expansion of its Texas-based business, last week said subsidiary Houston Pipe Line Co. LP (HPL) has agreed to a long-term contract to provide firm transportation and storage services on its Gulf Coast system to CenterPoint Energy Resources Corp (CERC).

Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP), which in the past month acquired an interstate natural gas pipeline and announced an expansion of its Texas-based business, on Tuesday said subsidiary Houston Pipe Line Co. LP (HPL) has entered into a long-term agreement with CenterPoint Energy Resources Corp. to provide firm transportation and storage services on its Gulf Coast system.

Shreveport, LA-based Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO), a unit of American Electric Power, announced plans for short-term, mid-term and long-term generation expansion in its Arkansas-Louisiana-Texas service territory. The utility is focusing on gas-fired generation to meet near-term needs and is looking to coal to fill more distant baseload generation requirements.

PNM Resources, which supplies natural gas to 481,000 customers in New Mexico, on Tuesday asked state regulators to approve a rate hike to help pay for infrastructure expansion and to compensate for rising costs for fuel and steel.

There’s no better time than the present to plan a pipeline or storage expansion project, and despite having a dozen or so projects already in the works, Kinder Morgan said Friday more are on the way. Kinder Morgan Pipelines President Scott E. Parker told a GasMart audience in Denver that Clarington, OH, the current terminus of the proposed $4.4 billion Rockies Express pipeline, probably will end up being an intermediate point with extensions to Oakford, PA, and then possibly Leidy, PA.

With firm commitments for a 537,200 Dth/d expansion/extension of Guardian Pipeline, Northern Border Partners LP decided it was an opportune time to enlarge its stake in the Wisconsin pipeline system. The company announced Thursday that it paid $77 million to Wisconsin Energy Corp. and WPS Resources Corp. for their separate 33.3% shares in Guardian. The deals give Northern Border 100% ownership of Guardian.

Prominent religious leaders and educators in the United States, in an “open statement” to policymakers last week, signaled their opposition to the expansion of oil and natural gas drilling on public lands.

Ozark Gas Transmission LLC, an Affiliate of Atlas Pipeline Mid-Continent LLC, will conduct a nonbinding open season for its proposed East End Expansion Project beginning March 6 and ending on March 31. The extension proposal calls for 100 miles of 24-inch pipe originating in White County AR, near the city of Searcy and terminating in Panola County, MS ,near the city of Sardis.

NiSource Inc. unit Columbia Gulf Transmission Co. launched an open season for firm capacity on a proposed expansion and extension of its East Lateral system in South Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico.