Withstood

Falcon Gas Storage reported that its MoBay Storage Hub facilities withstood a full frontal assault from Hurricane Ivan last week but sustained only minor damage. Located in state waters just offshore in the Mobile Bay area of Alabama, the high-deliverability gas storage project is slated for development into 45 Bcf of working gas capacity with a maximum withdrawal rate exceeding 1 Bcf/d. Falcon currently is delivering gas production from MoBay to markets in the Southeast and Florida pending receipt of state and federal permits for conversion into gas storage. Construction to convert Falcon’s MoBay project into a gas storage facility is scheduled to start late in the third quarter of 2005. “We took a direct hit from the worst storm to hit the Mobile Bay area in 50 years and still sustained only minor damage,” said CEO John M. Hopper. “Our operations people estimate that waves of up to 48 feet and wind gusts in the 140-150 mph range pounded our production facilities throughout the night and early morning as the hurricane made landfall, but we didn’t even lose the roof on our main platform… Despite all that Ivan threw at us, we were up and running at full production capacity within 72 hours after the storm made landfall. We’d have been making gas deliveries sooner if the take-away pipelines in the area had been fully operational over the weekend.” The storage hub will connect with all four pipelines that serve the southeast and Florida market areas: Gulfstream, Florida Gas, Transco and GulfSouth. Interconnections also are planned with all the gas processing and gathering facilities in the Mobile Bay area.