Expansion

Having gotten final FERC approval Wednesday (see Daily GPI, Dec. 29), El Paso said it was placing its Line 1903 Expansion Project in service effective Friday (Dec. 30). The project provides 502 MMcf/d of capacity utilizing the affiliated Mojave Pipeline system and a new lateral interconnecting El Paso’s northern and southern systems. The project also provides El Paso customers access to Rocky Mountain gas supplies via the Kern River interconnect at Daggett, CA. El Paso said it will offer shippers alternate access to markets and supply sources on Mojave “as soon as practical.”

With or without electric generation and transmission expansion plans in the West, a number of new natural gas pipeline and storage projects are unfolding throughout the region, according to a panel of executives from major developers at the “LDC Forum — Rockies & West” conference Tuesday in Los Angeles. The assortment of projects place many of the major industry players in direct head-to-head competition in the Rockies, Pacific Northwest and at the California-Arizona border.

Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp. said it executed precedent agreements for the Potomac Expansion Project with Washington Gas Light Co., Baltimore Gas and Electric and Columbia Gas of Virginia to transport a total of 165,000 Dth/d of gas from receipt points with Pine Needle LNG and East Tennessee Natural Gas in North Carolina to delivery points in Northern Virginia and Maryland beginning as early as November 2007.

Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) said Monday it is holding an open season to test market interest in the Sentinel Expansion Project, which would provide additional firm transportation capacity for gas entering the system from the Pleasant Valley receipt point, the Leidy Hub or any other receipt points downstream of those locations. The open season ends Dec. 2.

FERC on Thursday issued a certificate to El Paso Corp. subsidiary Wyoming Interstate Co. Ltd. (WIC) to proceed with an expansion of its pipeline system to step up natural gas deliveries by mid-winter out of the prolific Rocky Mountain region.

Cantor Fitzgerald LP has hired an energy industry veteran with 10 years experience — including stints at Sempra Energy and TXU Corp. — to lead the expansion of the firm’s energy commodities desk. The New York-based energy group will include brokerage and advisory services in markets for natural gas, power, crude oil, refined products and coal.

With experience in retail energy markets going back to the start of natural gas deregulation, the two executives tapped by the board at Costa Mesa, CA-based Commerce Energy Group, Inc. to return the national electric/natural gas retail marketer to profitability have long energy ties to Texas and California. Commerce Energy is the result of several acquisitions and mergers over the past two years as it has tried to turn profitable in seven states with retail competition in the natural gas and/or electricity industries.

FERC has issued a certificate allowing TransColorado Gas Transmission Co. to carry out a mostly compression “North Expansion Project” from the Piceance Basin to the Greasewood Hub in Rio Blanco County, CO.

FERC on Wednesday issued a certificate allowing TransColorado Gas Transmission Co. to carry out a mostly compression “North Expansion Project” from the Piceance Basin to the Greasewood Hub in Rio Blanco County, CO.