Texas Eastern
Texas Eastern Transmission LP is seeking federal approval of a $5.3-million expansion of its pipeline and compressor station system to distribute Marcellus shale gas produced locally by Chevron and EQT.
A subsidiary of Spectra Energy Transmission, of Houston, Texas, Texas Eastern wants to gain Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approval in November this year and put the new pipelines into service by November 2014, according to a pre-application filing recently submitted to FERC.
The proposed Team 2014 project includes 6.7 miles of a new 36-inch pipeline loop in Fayette County downstream of Texas Eastern’s existing Holbrook Compressor Station.
Modifications to Texas Eastern’s Uniontown Compressor Station include uprating of one of the existing 16,000 horsepower electric units to 20,000 horsepower by removing the software restriction currently in place to allow the unit to operate at its full service power and uprating of two existing 12,250 horsepower units to 13,300 horsepower each by replacing existing engines with new engines capable of greater horsepower. The changes would give the station total horsepower of 80,900.
The project involves installing a total of 33.6 miles of new pipeline in five counties in the state; upgrading four compressor stations in the state and other work at 41 company facilities between Pennsylvania and Mississippi.
“Texas Eastern’s (pipeline) runs from the Gulf of Mexico to Lambertville, N.J. This is an expansion of that system,” said Spectra spokeswoman Marylee Hanley.
Texas Eastern has agreements with Chevron and EQT to charge them for the work, which would provide both producers with the capacity to transport 300,000 additional British thermal units per day (Btu/d).
These two shippers are major producers in the Marcellus shale play need the project to ensure that pipeline capacity exists to transport their gas to markets as the production comes on line. The shippers have agreed to pay negotiated rates for the pipeline service, according to Texas Eastern’s FERC filing.
“We are an open access pipeline, which means we are required to provide service to our customers,” Hanley said.
The new pipelines would be installed adjacent to existing pipelines in existing rights of way, and all the compressor station work would be done on the stations’ existing property, she said.
TEAM 2014 would provide additional capacity to transport gas to growing markets, according to the filing.
The project is designed to transport new production to traditional Northeastern markets and to expanding markets in the Midwest, Southeast and Gulf Coast. The project will deliver Marcellus shale gas from certain Texas Eastern interconnections in Greene and Fayette counties and Marshall County, W.Va., to delivery points along Texas Eastern’s system at Lambertville, N.J., and Staten Island, N.Y., and to delivery points in Lebanon, Ohio; Copiah County, Miss., and Acadia Parish, La., according to the filing.
Specifically, the project would transport 300,000 Btu/d of gas from western Pennsylvania to the eastern end of the system in Lambertville, N.J., and Staten Island, N.Y.; 50,000 Btu/d from western Pennsylvania to the Lebanon, Ohio, hub and 250,000 Btu/d of of gas from western Pennsylvania to markets in Mississippi and Louisiana.
In addition to providing access to markets for the producers, the project would promote commodity price competition and reduce price volatility by introducing new supply sources from the Appalachian production area, particularly the prolific Marcellus shale, to these market areas, Texas Eastern said. The project would also provide gas to developing markets in the Gulf Coast Region and improve the company’s transportation security, flexibility and reliability, according to the filing.