Transco

FERC has approved the application for Williams Partners LP’s Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co. LLC’s (Transco) Dalton Expansion.

The Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has proposed levying a $1.6 million fine against Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co. (Transco) for an explosion and fire that killed four workers in Louisiana last October.

FERC has approved two projects by Williams Partners LP’s Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co. LLC (Transco) pipeline that are intended to serve local distribution company demand in New York City and fuel a new gas-fired power plant in Virginia.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission has agreed to license a 50-foot wide right-of-way in Lebanon County, PA, to Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co. (Transco) for its Atlantic Sunrise project. In exchange, Transco will convey to the commission 117 acres near game lands in Monroe County, PA, and another 120 acres in Lackawanna County, PA. The company would still be required to pay the agency’s habitat, surface and timber damages, as well as its standard annual license fee for as long as it remains active. The license authorizes 1,320 linear feet of 42-inch diameter natural gas pipeline within the right-of-way that would occupy 1.52 acres. Transco would also use and reclaim an additional 1.32 acres of game lands outside of the easement. The Atlantic Sunrise project would help move natural gas from Northeast Pennsylvania to markets in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast by expanding the Transco system to add 1.7 million Dth/d of capacity.

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has suspended trading of Atlas Resource Partners LP’s (ARP) common and preferred units. NYSE informed the company last week that it would begin proceedings to delist the company’s units. ARP is now listed on the over-the-counter market. Its common units were trading around 13 cents each on Thursday. The delisting is one part of the company’s financial woes. It has delayed a payment on its borrowing base and exercised its 30-day grace period to pay interest on its senior notes. ARP’s general partner, Atlas Energy Group LLC, was also delisted in March and is currently trading over-the-counter (see Shale Daily,March 21). ARP has producing wells and reserves in 17 states, which include assets in the Barnett, Eagle Ford, Marcellus and Utica shales.

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.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Thursday cleared Energy Transfer Equity LP’s (ETE) proposed acquisition of The Williams Companies Inc. (WMB) and specified assets to be divested.

Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co. LLC (Transco) has asked FERC to grant final approval for its proposed Dalton Expansion Project in Georgia by the end of the month, in order for the company to begin construction and meet the in-service date it promised customers.

Largely ignoring a somewhat supportive natural gas inventory report, cash and futures action were both relatively quiet on Thursday as temperatures nationally remained very much in their traditional shoulder season zone. Natgas cash values largely stayed within a nickel of flat, and NGI’s National Spot Gas Average — reflecting the melancholy attitude of the day — ended a penny higher at $1.89.