Citing adverse weather conditions, Rockies Express Pipeline LLC (REX) Thursday pushed back its timeline for completing the remainder of its western leg known as REX-West.

The company had projected that the remaining 213 miles of the REX-West project, running eastward from Brown County, KS, to Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line (PEPL) in Audrain County, MO, would be in full service in early February (see Daily GPI, Jan. 7). REX now, however, expects full service to the PEPL interconnect to be available in late February if the required regulatory approvals are received and the weather is favorable, according to its latest project update issued Thursday.

And service from the Echo Springs processing plant near Wamsutter, WY, which was to begin on Jan. 21, will be available on or about Feb. 4, REX said. It noted that it will post weekly updates every Thursday starting Jan. 31 or more frequently, if needed, as developments occur.

On Jan. 12, REX began interim service with 1.4 Bcf/d of capacity on the bulk of the REX-West system stretching 500 miles from the Cheyenne Hub in Weld County, CO, to the ANR delivery point in Kansas (see Daily GPI, Jan. 14).

In the nearly two weeks since start-up, competition has noticeably increased for the benefit of Rockies producers. Deliveries from REX-West into ANR Pipeline, Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America (NGPL) and Northern Natural Gas have reached 438,000 MMBtu/d. And as of Wednesday’s scheduled flows, the Northern Natural interconnect was at 92% of capacity while ANR and NGPL were at 28% and 14% capacity, respectively, according to Bentek Energy LLC (see Daily GPI, Jan. 24).

Bentek’s analysis also indicates that most of the new capacity has been filled with gas pulled from other regional pipelines that had previously been moving the supplies into markets south and west of the Rockies. Natural gas prices in the Rockies have increased significantly in the short period as well.

The $4 billion REX pipeline is owned by Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP, Sempra Pipelines & Storage and ConocoPhillips. The nearly 1,700-mile REX system is being built in three main sections, including the 327-mile REX-Entrega line, the REX-West leg and the REX-East portion, which would take gas from Audrain County to Clarington, OH.

REX-Entrega and most of REX-West are in operation, but REX-East is still in the permitting stage and it could face problems involving the environmental review of the project. FERC staff sent a letter last Friday to REX saying timely completion of the final environmental impact statement review of REX-East could be in jeopardy due to the company’s failure to provide the required information (see Daily GPI, Jan. 23).

Staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission “was able to expedite the issuance of the draft [environmental impact statement (EIS)], completing the document five weeks [ahead of schedule]…However, because of missing or incomplete information, we cannot commit to an expedited schedule for the issuance of the final EIS” for REX-East, FERC staff told REX.

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