Viking Gas Transmission got some good news Wednesday as FERCapproved a looping expansion of its system that will make itpossible for existing customers between the northern Minnesotaborder and West-Central Wisconsin to receive up to 28,000 Dth/d ofadditional gas supplies by the end of the year.

Viking Gas plans to construct loops at five differentsegments-all in Minnesota-of its 497-mile system, which wouldresult in a 5.5% increase in the pipeline’s current capacity of 480MMcf/d, said Viking President Gregory Palmer. “It’s kind of abenchmark for us” because it will boost Viking’s total systemcapability to over half a Bcf per day.

“It’s another step forward in the growth of Viking and inproviding service to our customers,” he told NGI. He estimated thatthe $21.4 million planned expansion, which has a target in-servicedate of Nov. 1, was 100% subscribed for winter and 89% subscribedfor summer.

Five shippers have signed 15-year agreements for the expansioncapacity, including Cardinal FG; the City of Perham, MN; NorthernStates Power-Minnesota (Viking’s parent); Northern StatesPower-Wisconsin; and UtiliCorp United.

For the expansion, FERC approved Viking’s request of incrementalmonthly demand rates of $10.65/Dth for service from its Emersoninterconnect (at the U.S.-Canadian international boundary) to anyZone 1 delivery point and $13.65/Dth for service from Emerson toany Zone 2 delivery point. It also approved initial commodityrates, subject to the outcome of Viking’s pending general ratecase.

The Commission did not impose an at-risk condition on the Vikingproject to shield non-expansion customers from costs associatedwith any underutilized capacity. However, it said, “if Viking laterproposes in a section 4 rate case to roll in the expansion costs,it will bear the burden to justify the proposal and show that itwould not adversely affect its other customers.”

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