FERC Thursday approved Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s (TGP) request to place into service the first of five looping components on its system, which would add 636,000 Dth/d of takeaway capacity from the Marcellus Shale, to markets in the Northeast.

The letter order gave TGP the green light to place Loop 319 in Bradford County, PA, in operation. “Loop 319 is mechanically complete and ready to be placed in service,” TGP told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission earlier this week. It also laid out a schedule for putting the remaining facilities of its Northeast Upgrade Project (Loops 317, 321, 325, 323, and the certificate facilities at the Mahwah, NJ, Meter Station, as well as the temporary facilities) in service by Nov. 1, the start of the winter heating season (see Shale Daily, Oct. 2).

The project shippers are Chesapeake Energy Marketing Inc. (429,300 Dth/d) and Statoil Natural Gas LLC (206,700 Dth/d), under contract terms of at least 20 years (see Shale Daily, Sept. 17). The Kinder Morgan pipeline said it would remove the temporary facilities from service when the certificated Mahwah Meter Station facilities are completed. TGP said it expects to complete construction and place into service the certificated Mahwah Meter Station by May 1.

The project, which FERC approved in mid-2012, will allow additional Marcellus gas supplies to be transported along Tennessee’s 300 Line to an interconnect with Algonquin Gas Transmission in Mahwah to serve growing markets in the Northeast (see Shale Daily, May 31, 2012). To create the additional firm transportation capacity, Tennessee’s project includes five 30-inch diameter pipeline loops and modifications to four existing compression stations.