Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. filed with FERC to expand its300-Line last week, bringing Central New York Oil & Gas’Stagecoach storage project closer to completion. The El Paso-ownedsubsidiary asked the commission to rule on the $86.5 millionexpansion proposal by Dec. 31, 2000 so that the facilities can beoperational in line with the proposed storage project’s in-servicedate of Aug. 1, 2001.

The filing requests permission to build a lateral, called theStagecoach Lateral, from the proposed field in Tioga County, NY toTennessee’s 300-Line near Compressor Station 15 in Bradford County,PA. The 30-inch lateral would have a capacity of 500,000 Dth/d, andexpansion capabilities of up to 1 Bcf/d. The filing also proposedto expand the available capacity on the 300-Line from theCompressor Station 319 to the Clinton Road delivery point by 90,000Dth/d to accommodate the new demand.

Tennessee said CYNOG picked the 300-Line because of severalreasons. “CYNOG informed Tennessee that its decision was based onthe fact that Tennessee offered several unique advantages: (1)close proximity to the field (the 300-Line is located 20 milessouth of the proposed site). (2) the ability to offer significantsupply diversity from essentially every important supply basinincluding the Gulf of Mexico, eastern and western Canada, as wellas Chicago via access to Midwestern Gas Transmission Co. system and(3) significant market access connections in the Northeast.”

CYNOG originally filed its application for the project lastNovember. The commission, however, told the company to resubmit theproposal once Tennessee filed its application. Initially, theStagecoach storage field would have a working gas capacity of 10-12Bcf, with withdrawal rates of up to 500 MMcf/d and injection ratesof 250 MMcf/d. Depending on market conditions, the field’s workinggas capacity could reach 13.6 Bcf. CYNOG owns 100% of the leaseholdinterests in the two depleted gas field pools that will beconverted into the project as well as 80% of the gas rights inthose pools.

In two open season’s held by Tennessee for capacity fromStagecoach, CYNOG’s affiliate, eCorp, submitted “the best bid,”according to Tennessee. The developer of high-deliverability gasstorage facilities subscribed for a total of 400,000 Dth/d of firmtransportation on the lateral and all 90,000 Dth/d of firmtransportation on the 300-Line.

Approval of this field could have major implications for theNortheast gas grid, according to John F. Thrash, president and CEOof eCorp. In an interview last year Thrash said Stagecoach couldhave major effects on large projects attempting to bring gas to theNortheast (see Daily GPI, June 14, 1999). Stagecoach would do thisby “greatly enhanc[ing]” the ability of existing Northeastpipelines such as Columbia, Tennessee Pipeline’s 300 Line,Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s Leidy Line and CNG Transmission’ssystem to better serve the downstream market, he noted. “There isan intrinsic underutilization of all of those pipes…..They eventestified at the [FERC conference last week] that they’re notrunning at 100% load factor on average, and there are moments intime when they are way below average. And so this is an opportunityto use that unused capacity.”

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