Source: Columbus Business First
A Texas company wants to build a 76-mile-long, $468 million pipeline extension so major Utica and Marcellus shale companies can move natural gas from Ohio to the Gulf Coast.
Texas Eastern Transmission LP said in a federal filing that it has agreements with four companies to transport natural gas.Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE:CHK) committed to sending 350,000 dekathermsof gas a day from Ohio to the Gulf Coast, Total Gas & Power North America committed to 100,000 dekatherms andConsol Energy (NYSE:CNX) and Rice Energy (NYSE:RICE) committed to 50,000 dekatherms each, Texas Eastern said in a filing to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The Ohio Pipeline Energy Network – or Open Project – would mark a change in how natural gas is distributed in the U.S. Typically, gas has flowed from the Gulf Coast and western North America to the eastern part of the nation. But as the Utica play in Ohio and the Marcellus play in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio continue producing natural gas, projections show Ohio and the Northeast could become net exporters of the fuel.
In addition to the 30-inch diameter pipeline, Texas Eastern would build a 9,400-horsepower gas turbine compressor station in Colerain, and make adjustments to existing compressor centers to allow bi-directional flow.
The proposed pipeline would extend from the Kensington processing plant in Columbiana County to an interconnection with Texas Eastern’s system in Monroe County. It would then be delivered to the company’s Egan hub in Louisiana.
“The Open Project will improve the flexibility and reliability of service on the Texas Eastern system and the overall pipeline grid by providing the Texas Eastern system with direct access for the first time to the rapidly growing Utica shale production, as well as increasing access for Gulf Coast and Southeast markets to both the Utica Shale and Marcellus shale production,” the company said in the FERC filing.
Texas Eastern, a subsidiary of Spectra Energy Corp. (NYSE:SE), asked FERC to grant permission by Dec. 5 so it can have its pipeline and facilities operational by Nov. 1, 2015. It says its pipeline system stretches 9,200 miles from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast
