Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) has filed an application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to build a $182 million expansion of its system to meet growing natural gas demand in New York City and the Rockaways.

The proposed Rockaway Delivery Lateral Project would provide 647,000 Dth/d of gas delivery capacity to National Grid’s distribution system, in Brooklyn and Queens, NY. The project is targeted for service in the second half of 2014. National Grid is the largest distributor of natural gas in the northeastern United States, serving 3.4 million customers in New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

“The project would create an additional delivery point from the existing Transco system into National Grid’s distribution network,” said Frank Ferazzi, general manager of Williams Partners’ Transco pipeline. The facilities would interconnect with a 26-inch diameter lateral that National Grid is proposing to construct.

“In recent years, the supply/demand balance has been tight in the Brooklyn/Western Long Island region. This delicate balance is beginning to tip as environmental and economic drivers have spurred a recent growth in oil-to-natural gas conversions. Without additional pipeline capacity to serve the Rockaways and New York City, National Grid will be challenged to maintain system reliability and growth,” Transco said.

The proposed 3.2-mile, 26-inch diameter Rockaway Delivery Lateral would consist of 2.9 miles of offshore pipeline and 0.3 miles of onshore pipeline. The small pipeline would pass under Jacob Riis Park in the Rockaways portion of Queens and under Jamaica Bay to a new meter and regulator station on Floyd Bennett Field (a decommissioned airfield) in Brooklyn.

Both Jacob Riis Park and Floyd Bennett Field are part of the Gateway National Recreation Center, which was created by Congress in 1972 to preserve and protect scarce and unique cultural and recreational resources. It is owned by the U.S. government and managed by the National Park Service. The recreation center spans 26,607 acres in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, NY, and Monmouth County, NJ.

In November, President Obama signed a bill allowing for the construction and operation of the Transco expansion facilities in the New York portion of the Gateway National Recreation Center (see Daily GPI, Nov. 30, 2012).

Transco is a 10,200-mile pipeline that transports gas to markets throughout the Northeast and Southeast. Its current system capacity is 9.7 Dth/d.

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