Infrastructure

Ground has been broken for a $3 billion chemical manufacturing project in Lake Charles, LA.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said in comments filed with FERC on Monday that the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for Columbia Pipeline Group Inc.’s Leach and Rayne XPress pipeline projects is insufficient, recommending that additional information be included in the final version.

Staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has prepared a favorable Environmental Assessment (EA) of Tennessee Gas Pipe Line Co LLC.’s (TGP) proposed Triad Expansion Project [CP15-520]. FERC staff concluded that the project, with appropriate mitigating measures, would not adversely affect the environment, according to the EA. The EA comes nearly a year after TGP filed for a certificate with FERC to expand its system in Pennsylvania by 180,000 Dth/d to serve a new natural gas-fired power plant in the northeast part of the state (see Daily GPI,June 19, 2015). The $87.4 million project would consist of constructing seven miles of 36-inch diameter pipeline looping and include the installation of new a pig launcher and crossover and connecting facilities, as well as modifications to an existing compressor station. TGP said the construction and modifications would occur on its 300 Line, which runs from Mercer County, PA, eastward through the state and into others before ending in Massachusetts. The expansion would deliver natural gas to an existing interconnection with utility UGI Corp., which would then deliver the gas from Susquehanna County directly to the new power plant in Lackawanna County, PA, TGP said. FERC will take comments on the EA through July 15.

Kaiser-Frontier Midstream (KFM), a unit of Tulsa-based Kaiser-Francis Oil Co., has asked FERC for authorization to place into service the southern segment of its three-segment Silo Pipeline Project in Wyoming and Colorado.

The permitting process for oil and gas pipelines is getting longer, which could harm other sectors of the economy, such as manufacturing, according to testimony before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on Tuesday.

Oregon’s two U.S. senators on Thursday asked the head of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) why a federal investigative team was not dispatched last weekend to the scene of an oil tanker train derailment in their state near the Columbia River Gorge.

A pipeline safety bill is headed to President Obama’s desk for his signature after the U.S. Senate agreed to a House amendment to the measure by unanimous consent late Monday.

Spectra Energy Corp.’s Valley Crossing Pipeline LLC has been awarded the contract for a 168-mile Texas intrastate natural gas pipeline project by Mexico’s Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE). It will deliver gas to a planned undersea pipeline that will run from Texas to Mexico.

A unit of Bismarck-based MDU Resources Group Inc. said Monday it plans to build a $50 million natural gas transmission pipeline to bring gas supplies to areas of eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota. An open season for the project will run through July 15.