Greenfield

Southeast Gas Storage LLC (SGS), an affiliate of El Paso Corp.’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co., has launched a nonbinding open season for its proposed Black Warrior Storage Project, a greenfield underground natural gas storage facility to be located in northeastern Mississippi. The proposed storage facility would have a total working natural gas capacity of 20 Bcf and provide for a three-turn service. The project would interconnect with Tennessee’s 500 Line, downstream of its Columbus Compressor Station in Zone 1, through a new 24-inch diameter pipeline. Based on the initial project design, the high-deliverabiity, multi-cycle facility would provide up to 333 MMcf/d injection rates and 375 MMcf/d withdrawal rates. The open season would allow SGS to evaluate the market interest, economics and design parameters for the project, the company said. Based upon the results of the open season, SGS said it would determine the project’s scope and whether to proceed with a binding open season. With enough market interest, SGS said it expects to file the project with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in May and would request authority to charge market-based rates. The proposed in-service date is June 2010. SGS noted that even though the open season is nonbinding, only bids received during the subscription period for the open season would be guaranteed consideration for service in the project. The open season will end at 4 p.m. CDT on May 14. Project details are available here or by contacting Sital Mody at (713) 420-4336, Stuart Neck at (713) 420-2230 or Heath Deneke at (713) 420-3812.

FERC on Wednesday approved Equitrans LP’s request to begin the pre-filing process for a proposed greenfield pipeline that would transport Appalachian natural gas production in eastern Kentucky to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast markets.

Building more greenfield natural gas pipelines to the Northeastis not the answer. In fact, widespread switching from distillateoil to natural gas will not shield the region’s energy customersfrom a repeat of the heating oil price shocks that they experiencedearlier this year. If anything, it could aggravate prices not onlyfor distillate oil but for gas, the Energy InformationAdministration (EIA) said in a report issued last Wednesday.

Building more greenfield natural gas pipelines to the Northeastis not the answer. In fact, massive switching from distillate oilto natural gas will not protect the region’s energy customers froma repeat of the heating oil price shocks that they experiencedearlier this year. If anything, it could aggravate prices not onlyfor distillate oil but for gas, the Energy InformationAdministration (EIA) said in a report issued yesterday.