Mile

Sabal Trail Transmission LLC, a joint venture of Spectra Energy and NextEra Energy Inc., has been named the winning bidder to build a 465-mile interstate natural gas pipeline project by Florida Power & Light (FPL) to provide transportation services for its power generations needs beginning in May 2017. FPL, the largest power company in the state, put out the request for proposals for a new pipeline in December. Sabal Trail would have an estimated price tag of $3 billion and originate in Tallapoosa County, AL, extend through Georgia and terminate at the Central Florida Hub near Orlando (see NGI, July 8). Through a capacity lease with Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco), natural gas supply would be accessed at Transco’s Station 85 in Choctaw County, AL. The pipeline, when completed, would have the capacity to transport more than 1 Bcf/d to serve local distribution companies, industrial users and natural gas-fired power generators. According to the Energy Information Administration, Florida generates 62% of its power from 1.1 Tcf of natural gas.

Koch Pipeline Co. LP is holding a nonbinding open season for the Dakota Express Pipeline, which would carry crude oil from the Bakken Shale in western North Dakota to Hartford and Patoka, IL. A connection at Patoka to the Eastern Gulf Crude Access Pipeline to carry crude to Gulf Coast refineries is also contemplated.

Oilfield services provider Flowserve Corp. will relocate some of its pump division operations from New Jersey to Pennsylvania, a 15-mile move that brings more than 100 jobs to a state much more supportive of the company’s bread and butter: oil and gas drilling.

Inergy LP’s Tres Palacios 20-mile header pipeline extension is now in service, allowing shippers to transport up to 300 MMcf/d of natural gas from the tailgate of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP’s Houston Central gas processing plant in Colorado County, TX, to the Tres Palacios gas storage facility. The 24-inch diameter extension also enables delivery of gas from the Houston Central plant to any of the 10 interstate and intrastate pipelines interconnected with the Tres Palacios header system. “Beyond providing Eagle Ford Shale producers with significant new market options, we believe our new Houston Central interconnection will increase liquidity at the Tres Palacios hub point for marketers to access supply,” said Bruce Page, Tres Palacios vice president for commercial operations and business development. The Houston Central plant provides 700 MMcf/d of processing capacity and 22,000 b/d of fractionation capacity and is being expanded to process an additional 400-800 MMcf/d of rich gas from the Eagle Ford Shale.

CN, Canada’s national railway, said it plans to accelerate work on a US$33 million project to upgrade a 74-mile section of the Whitehall Subdivision line in Wisconsin. The upgrade between the towns of Wisconsin Rapids and Blair would allow increased car-loading capacity and train velocity for hydraulic fracture (frack) sand suppliers Badger Mining Corp., Preferred Sands of Wisconsin LLC, Atlas Resin Proppants LLC and Taylor Frac LLC. After the upgrade, CN would be able to transport heavier freight cars loaded with frack sand, up to a maximum of 286,000 pounds. CN, which began the work in 2012, plans to complete the project by December 2014, a year ahead of time.

Plains All American Pipeline LP is constructing a 95-mile extension of its Oklahoma crude oil pipeline to service increasing production from the Granite Wash, Hogshooter and Cleveland Sands producing areas in western Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle. The new Western Oklahoma pipeline will provide up to 75,000 b/d of takeaway capacity from Reydon, OK, in Roger Mills County to PAA’s Orion station in Major County, OK. At the Orion station, crude oil will flow on PAA’s existing pipeline system to the PAA terminal in Cushing, OK. The new Western Oklahoma pipeline is supported by long-term producer commitments and is expected to be in service by the end of the first quarter of 2014, the company said.

The Addison Natural Gas Project (ANGP), a Vermont Gas proposal to add a 41-mile extension to its natural gas system in western Vermont, “will benefit the region” and Middlebury College “in numerous ways for years to come,” Middlebury President Ron Liebowitz said recently, despite requests from one prominent faculty member that the college publicly oppose the pipeline.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is raising “environmental objections” to the State Department’s draft environmental impact statement for the northern portion of the $7 billion, 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline that would carry Canadian crude to Cushing, OK. Sponsor TransCanada Corp. had no comment. A southern portion, not requiring a federal review, is under construction between Cushing to the Gulf Coast.

Enterprise Products Partners is considering repurposing a portion of its 1,373-mile Seminole pipeline, which currently transports natural gas liquids (NGL) from the Hobbs hub and the Permian Basin to markets in south Texas, including the Enterprise NGL fractionation facility in Mont Belvieu, TX.