Facilities

New Fortress Energy LLC is developing plans for two facilities that would liquefy natural gas produced in the Marcellus Shale of Pennsylvania, according to a recent filing with federal regulators.

Up to 100 new or expanded production facilities for renewable natural gas (RNG) are expected to be developed in California by 2025 as the state transforms from being a major importer to developing capacity to meet growing demand.

Staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has prepared an environmental assessment (EA) for Texas Eastern Transmission LP’s (Tetco) proposed Idle Line 1 Abandonment project [CP17-6]. FERC staff concluded that, with appropriate mitigating measures, the project would not significantly affect the quality of the human environment. Tetco is seeking authorization to abandon in place and by removal 165 miles of Line 1 pipeline that runs from Fayette County, OH, to Greene County, PA, that were placed into idle service in 1989, including three segments of 24-inch diameter pipeline, associated lateral lines 10-L and 10-M, metering and regulating facilities and other aboveground facilities. FERC will accept comments on the EA through May 22.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), acting on a request from several trade associations, including the oil and gas industry, issued a three-month stay of a rule designed to help prevent accidents and explosions at refineries and other industrial facilities.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff will prepare an environmental assessment (EA) for theSabine Pass Expansion Project. Comments in Docket No.CP17-22 are to be filed by Feb. 24. Commenters filing comments before the docket’s opening on Dec. 13 need to refile. The project includes modifications of existing facilities and construction/operation of new facilities by Kinder Morgan Louisiana Pipeline LLC in Cameron, Evangeline and Acadia Parishes in Louisiana in order to serve Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass liquefied natural gas export terminal.

After years of considering the idea, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to add natural gas processors to a list of industrial facilities that must report annually information on chemical discharges and other waste management activities.

The Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) has accepted $97,000 in settlement offers from Panda Power Funds LP for violations at three of its natural gas-fired power plants in Pennsylvania. The SRBC, which oversees conservation and monitors industrial development in the area, said the company consumed water in excess of regulatory thresholds at its Panda, Patriot and Hummel power plants; Panda and Patriot were recently commissioned. Hummel, which is one of the country’s largest coal-to-gas switching projects, is expected to be in operation by 2018. Panda said permits for the facilities were issued to another developer and did not meet the facilities requirements.

A federal interim rule setting national standards for natural gas storage facilities will be released before the end of the year, the head of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) said on Tuesday as part of the release of a national task force report undertaken after a four-month storage well leak in Southern California (see Daily GPI, Feb. 18).

Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co. LLC(Transco) has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to act by Wednesday (July 13) on its certificate application for the Dalton Expansion Project in Georgia [CP15-117]. The project calls for constructing 112 miles of pipeline, ranging from 16 to 30 inches in diameter, from the existing Transco pipeline at Station 115 in Coweta County, GA, to new delivery points in Georgia’s Bartow and Murray counties (see Shale Daily, March 20, 2015). It also includes a new compressor facility in Carroll County, GA, as well as three new metering facilities and other related pipe and valve modifications to existing facilities. According to FERC, Transco also plans to modify existing facilities along its mainline in Virginia and North Carolina to accommodate bi-directional flow. The pipeline lateral is designed to connect the Transco mainline to an existing power plant in northern Georgia operated by Oglethorpe Power Co., and to provide natural gas to a local distribution company operated by Atlanta Gas Light Co.