(Houston, TX) Williams-Transco gained federal regulatory approval for a pipeline project bringing gas for home heating and power generation in the Atlantic Seaboard region.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave permission to proceed with the Leidy South Project which will deliver 582,400 dekatherms per day—enough to serve more than two million homes—of additional pipeline takeaway from the gas-rich Marcellus and Utica shale regions of Pennsylvania. Tulsa-based Williams says the project will help utilities convert from coal-fired power capacity to natural gas, which has half the carbon emissions.

“As the United States switches to clean power to energize our electric grids, Williams is excited and proud to be the backbone that connects the best supplies of dry gas with our country’s largest demand centers,” said Alan Armstrong, president and CEO of Williams. “This project represents one of many opportunities to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions with right here, right now available solutions as coal-fired electric generation plants are replaced with natural gas units to reliably balance the intermittency of new renewable resources.”

The Leidy South would basically use the same corridor as the company’s interstate Transco pipeline system in that area, so it would reduce the amount of new infrastructure and land use needed.

(Houston, TX) - Targa Resources Corp. announced that Targa NGL Pipeline Company LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, has launched an open season commencing July 1, 2020 and closing July 31, 2020 to gauge shipper interest in committed interstate transportation service for natural gas liquids (“NGLs”) from a planned interconnection with upstream pipeline facilities in Kingfisher County, Oklahoma to Mont Belvieu, Texas. As announced in February 2019, Targa NGL Pipeline is currently developing an approximately 110-mile extension of Targa’s existing Grand Prix pipeline system to the new Kingfisher County interconnection where it will connect with Williams’ new Bluestem Pipeline.

This open season will provide an opportunity for shippers to secure firm capacity for NGL transportation subject to the terms of their transportation service agreements (“TSAs”). The final volume of capacity for both committed and uncommitted service on the project will be determined by Targa in part based on the results of this open season.

Dominion Energy has agreed to sell its natural gas storage and transmission assets to Berkshire Hathaway in a $9.7bn deal that will allow Dominion to pursue its state-regulated utility business.

The deal includes the Dominion Energy Transmission system, Questar pipeline and the Carolina Gas Transmission system, as well as a 50pc stake in the Iroquois Gas Transmission system. Berkshire will also acquire a 25pc stake in the Cove Point LNG export terminal in Maryland.

As part of the deal, Berkshire will assume $5.7bn of Dominion's debt.

The assets comprise more than 7,700 miles of gas pipelines that can move 20.8 Bcf/d and 900 Bcf of operated gas storage assets in the northeast and Rocky Mountains.

Dominion will retain a 50pc share of the 5.75mn t/yr Cove Point terminal, but Berkshire will operate the facility once the transaction is completed. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter, pending regulatory approvals.

"This transaction represents another significant step in our evolution as a company, allowing us to focus even more on fulfilling utility customer needs," Dominion chief executive Thomas Farrell said.

The bulk of Dominion's future earnings will come from its state-regulated natural gas and electric utilities in Virginia, the Carolinas, Ohio and Utah. Dominion's stake in Cove Point and its solar and nuclear generation will be the only key exceptions, the company said.

Dominion and Duke Energy, the developers of the $8bn, 1.4 Bcf/d Atlantic Coast pipeline, canceled that project today following years of permitting delays.

(Tulsa, OK) — Vacuworx is pleased to welcome Charlie Cunningham to the North America sales and leadership teams as Senior Director of Sales.

Cunningham brings more than two decades of experience with sales, marketing and business development activities. He recently spent 15 years with Astec Industries, Inc. As Vice President of Sales with Astec Underground and GEFCO, he led the development of initiatives to identify potential markets, new products, and sales and marketing domestically and internationally.

His responsibilities at Vacuworx include providing management and strategies for the North America sales team, while also driving new distribution partnerships to support material handling in the oil and gas pipeline, utility infrastructure, highway and transportation, and concrete renovation markets.

The foundation for Cunningham’s work ethic was built growing up alongside his father and grandfather as they managed the family’s dairy farm at the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. He attended the University of Tennessee, earning a bachelor’s degree in agriculture prior to going to work as a director of training and education and regional sales manager with Tennessee Farmers Cooperative.

From there, Cunningham launched a Dale Carnegie sales and marketing training program that included the facilitation of more than 25 client workshops focused on business improvement, effective communication and strategic sales.

Married with four adult children, Cunningham is based in his hometown of Maryville, Tennessee, residing on his family’s nearly 200-year-old Century Farm. An avid outdoorsman and former marathoner, he enjoys running, cycling and kayaking, alongside staying active with his local church community.

(Houston, TX) - ANR Pipeline asked the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to authorize a 165,000-Dt/d expansion that would help deliver natural gas from as far away as Manitoba to markets in the Gulf Coast region and other points on its interstate pipeline system.

"Demand has grown not only in the Gulf Coast, driven in part by the construction of LNG export terminals, but also at areas served by ... various receipt and delivery points on the ANR system," the pipeline company told FERC. "The project will match this growing demand at several points on the ANR system with low-cost natural gas supply from multiple supply basins, including imports" from Western Canada.

ANR, a subsidiary of TC Energy, submitted a June 22 abbreviated application for a Natural Gas Act certificate and related authorizations for the Alberta XPress project. The company asked FERC to authorize the project by May 20, 2021, to allow the project to enter service by November 2022. ANR has executed binding precedent agreements with two shippers to provide firm transportation service that would cover the full gas transportation capacity of the project. The project shippers were designated "foundation shipper" and "anchor shipper," but not otherwise named in the application.

ANR told FERC the project would not hurt its existing customers and would have minimal impacts on landowners, communities and the environment.

The project, estimated to cost $81.1 million, would put in place a 15,900-hp greenfield compressor station in Evangeline Parish, Louisiana, which would boost incremental capacity on ANR's Southeast Mainline 501 and 501 Loop pipelines between Ohio and Louisiana. The project would also involve a lease between ANR and affiliate Great Lakes Gas Transmission, under which ANR would lease capacity on the Great Lakes pipeline system between Manitoba and an ANR system connection in Wisconsin (CP20-484).

At a June 18 FERC meeting, the regulator granted ANR authorization to build and operate the Grand Chenier XPress project in Louisiana to serve Venture Global Calcasieu Pass and the Calcasieu Pass LNG export terminal.

(San Antonio, TX) -- MIRAGE ENERGY CORPORATION announces it has signed a $4 Billion debt facility with the family office of Bluebell International, LLC’s (BBI) family office for the development of natural gas pipelines, underground natural gas storage and the Isthmus Corridor Project.

The company’s pipeline, interconnected with Whitewater Whistler, provides an inexpensive natural gas supply for Mexico through a new 42-inch pipeline to be built from Agua Dulce/ Banquette Hub to Progresso then into Mexico. From there, natural gas can be stored underground (once developed) or sent to Station #19 on the Sistrangas system, with a 42-inch line going on to Los Ramones and an interconnect to the San Fernando/Cactus line, which would bring natural gas all the way to Nuevo Pemex on the Yucatan Peninsula.

When fully developed, Mirage’s natural gas storage facility will be the largest natural gas storage facility on the North American continent with the ability to hold 786BCF of natural gas, giving the country of Mexico a six-month’s supply in the event natural gas is interrupted – a strategic asset for the country.

The Isthmus Corridor project consists of a series of pipelines and storage facilities in Mexico connecting the Port of Pajaritos on the Gulf of Mexico side to Salina Cruz on the Pacific side. The pipelines will provide a faster, more economical means of delivering crude oil and refined products from the U.S. to Asia, Mexico and the west coast of the U.S. Compared to using the Panama Canal or the Cape Horn route. Using this route saves 36 days of true shipping time to Asia, for example.

“One of the biggest problems in oil and gas transportation is the logistical dilemma posed by Supertankers that cannot fit through the Panama Canal, thereby reducing access to the Pacific Ocean or forcing them to take the hazardous and expensive journey around Cape Horn,” said Michael Ward, President and CEO of Mirage Energy. “The Isthmus project is a logical and far more economical alternative, and we are pleased that the family offices of Bluebell International have agreed to partner with us.”

The three projects comprise the following:

• Mirage 1 – Burgos Hub Storage & Natural Gas Pipeline, a US-Mexico development consisting of cross-border transportation and the first underground natural gas storage facility in the country of Mexico. (In permit phase) (Construction will start soon after they get all permits) (Has been negotiated)

• Mirage 2 – SAN FERNANDO/CACTUS – 48-inch natural gas pipeline running from Reynosa, Mexico to Nuevo Pemex. (Already built. Has some rehab)

• Mirage 3 – ISTHMUS CORRIDOR – 30-inch and 48-inch bi-directional crude oil pipeline across the Tehuantepec Isthmus of Mexico (connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans). (Already built. Has some rehab)

The terms of the loan include an equity split of 75% to BBI and 25% is no cost to Mirage Energy/Northern Hemisphere Logistics, Inc.

Turkey's state gas grid operator Botaş has opened a tender for a gas pipeline to supply Azerbaijan’s exclave of Nakhchivan. The new supply route would sideline Iranian gas sales to Azerbaijan and comes as Ankara is trying to repair its relationship with the United States.

Sandwiched between Iran and Armenia and sharing a tiny border with Turkey, Nakhchivan has long relied on Iran for natural gas for both domestic heating and power generation.

The move follows an announcement in February by the presidents of Turkey and Azerbaijan that they planned to fast track the construction of the pipeline, which has been on hold since 2010, when an agreement was first signed to build it.

Botaş’s tender calls for the design of a pipeline running around 80 kilometers from the eastern Turkish city of Iğdır to the border with Nakhchivan, capable of carrying up to around 2 billion cubic meters of gas, which is more than four times the enclave's consumption.

Design work is to be completed by early 2021, meaning that line could be constructed and operational as early as 2022.

Nakhchivan has been importing Iranian gas under a swap agreement between Baku and Tehran inked in 2004, under which Azerbaijan supplies gas to Iran's isolated northwestern border city of Astara, which has no gas supply from inside Iran.

In return, Iran supplies 85 percent of that volume to Nakhchivan, with the 15 percent differential acting as a transit fee – terms which Baku has for some years been seeking to renegotiate.

The prospect of a rival gas supply line from Turkey to Nakhchivan could persuade Tehran to be more amenable, but the planned line promises to have a substantially wider impact.

Turkey also imports Iranian gas, but that flow has been halted since March 31 when a sabotage attack, which the Turkish authorities blamed on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), forced the closure of the pipeline.

Ankara has been in no hurry to repair the line, claiming that the attack is a "force majeure,” meaning it isn't liable to compensate Tehran for any losses.

The March attack was certainly fortuitous for Turkey.

The month before, Turkey's deputy energy minister Alpaslan Bayraktar told a conference in Istanbul that Ankara planned to use the availability of cheap liquid natural gas (LNG) delivered by ship to force its pipeline gas suppliers to cut their prices.

"This is a signal to our existing pipeline suppliers that they need to be flexible," he said.

Global LNG prices were already at historic lows before the COVID-19 pandemic forced them lower still, meaning Turkey has been able to replace Iranian gas with LNG at a fraction of the cost charged by Tehran.

And while the threat of undercutting Iran’s exports to Nakhchivan can only improve Ankara's hand in contract talks with Tehran, the potential for leverage doesn't end there.

Turkey has for the past few months been attempting to improve its fractious relations with Washington, which has in turn long been pressing both Turkey and Azerbaijan to limit their economic ties with Iran.

The prospect of Turkey and Azerbaijan ending or limiting their gas imports from Iran will certainly appeal to the Iran hawks in the Trump administration, all the more so given that the past year has seen the U.S. become one of Turkey's main gas suppliers. As of February, the U.S. was accounting for 18 percent of Turkish gas imports, compared to only 15 percent from Iran

On June 1, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule restricting the rights of states, tribes and the public to challenge federal permits for energy projects through the use of the Clean Water Act.   The rule sets a one-year deadline for states and tribes to certify or deny proposed pipeline, hydroelectric or industrial plant projects that could affect waterways. Any review of projects would be limited to only water quality impacts under a new agency definition.

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler noted that some states had used the Act in the past to cause extended delays and trap energy projects in a bureaucratic Groundhog Day-type scenario and to hold projects hostage for long periods. “Our system of republican democracy does not allow for one state to dictate standards or decisions for the entire nations,” Wheeler has stated. New York denied a certification for the Constitution Pipeline, a 124-mile natural gas pipeline that would have run from Pennsylvania to New York, crossing rivers more than 200 times using sections the Clean Water Act. Both New Jersey and New York denied permits to the Williams Co. $1 billion Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline project, citing both water quality and climate change concerns.

The national oil and gas industry trade association the American Petroleum Institute (API) released a statement noting that the “API believes this rule will provide a rigorous, consistent and transparent process for water quality certifications for energy developers and manufacturers, while ensuring that the public plays an important role in the regulatory process,” API Vice President for Midstream and Industry Operations Robin Rorick said. “We support the Clean Water Act, and though certain states have continued to go well beyond its scope for water quality certifications, we hope the addition of a well-defined timeline and review process will provide certainty to operators as they develop infrastructure projects that meet state water quality standards,” he added.

(Anchorage, AK) Alaska has cleared the biggest regulatory hurdle to developing a long-sought North Slope natural gas pipeline project.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday issued a record of decision authorizing construction of the state’s plan for the many-billion-dollar Alaska LNG Project, concluding a three-year-plus environmental impact statement process.

AGDC President Frank Richards called it a “momentous day for the project” and thanked FERC for largely sticking to its timeline for the EIS during a Thursday morning meeting of the AGDC board.

AGDC submitted its application for the massive project to FERC in April 2017.

“As anybody in the infrastructure development process knows, to go through the (National Environmental Policy Act) process in three years is an exceptionally fast time,” Richards said.

Since the current iteration of the project began in 2013, the three major Slope producers and the state have spent more than $600 million to reach this point, with the state share about $240 million of that total.

At its core, the project consists of a large North Slope gas treatment plant; an 807-mile 42" buried natural gas pipeline from the Slope to the Kenai Peninsula; off take points for state use, and a three-train liquefaction plant at Nikiski capable of producing up to 20 million metric tons of LNG per year for export to Asian markets.

If developed, the project would generate upwards of 18,000 jobs during construction and roughly 1,000 new jobs during its 30-year operational life, according to AGDC and state Labor Department estimates. It would also provide natural gas to the Fairbanks area and other communities along the pipeline route that currently rely on fuel oil for heating and in some cases power generation.

(Raleigh, NC) PSNC (Dominion) plans to build a 13-mile natural gas pipeline from southwestern Wake County north toward Durham County, and much of the route could follow the American Tobacco Trail.

The state Board of Transportation agreed this month to grant Dominion Energy an easement to build the 12-inch pipeline in the former railroad corridor that is now a cycling and walking trail known as the ATT. For a one-time payment of $3 million the utility can build and operate the pipeline parallel to the trail from Morrisville Parkway in Cary about 6 miles north through Chatham County to Scott King Road in Durham.

Dominion Energy spokeswoman Persida Montanez says the company has not chosen a final route for the pipeline, which would help provide gas to growing parts of Wake, Chatham and Durham counties. Montanez said the pipeline will run generally from west of Apex to an area southwest of Research Triangle Park.

Dominion Energy hopes to have permits in hand so construction can begin in late September or early October.

(Ontario, Quebec) A federal environment assessment is being ordered for the Gazoduq Project, a proposed 484 mile long natural gas pipeline between Ramore in northeastern Ontario and Saguenay, Que.

The pipeline project is an extension of the Trans-Canada Pipeline to move Alberta gas to a saltwater port for export.

Construction, if and when permits are awarded, could be early 2022.

(Houston, TX) - Advanced Geodetic Surveys, an authorized Trimble dealer since 1991, is pleased to announce the appointment of Adam Terrell to the role of Vice President. Adam has served as Operations Manager at AGS for over five years, and initially joined the company in 2012 as lead tech support. In his expanded role, Adam will continue to oversee the Operations Department, while also supporting AGS owner and CEO PJ Meyers and President Todd Traylor with the day to day responsibilities company wide.

Under Adam's guidance, the AGS Operations team expanded capabilities and growth of their Trimble Authorized Service and Repair Center. In addition to basic repairs like screen and keypad replacement for Data Collectors, the Tier 3 Trimble Certified technicians perform complex repairs on GPS instruments and radios, as well as calibrations and cleanings of Total Stations at the Houston area survey equipment distributor.

Mr. Terrell is one of the top tech support gurus in the industry and has over 20 years of direct experience providing solutions and support to customers all over the world. With an Associate’s Degree in Micro Computer Technology from MTI Business College, Adam not only uses his extensive knowledge of Trimble, but also his abilities with telecommunication and connected devices to help customers keep their equipment running and their jobs on schedule. Having overseen the repair center at AGS, Adam understands both the hardware and software sides of the business, which gives him a unique understanding of the many problems surveyors can face while in the field or in the office.

AGS customers have benefited from Adam's expertise for years, and much of the Trimble rental growth from AGS core customers can be attributed to his interactions and problem solving. His patience and ability to listen and find workable solutions for customers' equipment needs are shown by the loyalty and appreciation they give to AGS through their business. Adam has also been a key contributor behind the scenes with his support and effort on the implementation of an inventory management system for both the Damon headquarters and growing Permian Basin locations.

"I just want customers to get the support they deserve, and I want everyone at AGS to help provide that high level of service to everyone we deal with." Adam added, "I am thankful to PJ for the recognition, but my job doesn't change. We still have to work hard be the best we can."

AGS owner PJ Meyers said, “The respect that Todd and I have for Adam is immense, and he definitely leads by example. He puts the customer first, and there is nothing we have thrown at him that he cannot handle." Traylor added, "We are fortunate to have Adam on our team and promoting him to Vice President is a reflection of his experience, skills and abilities. Our confidence in Adam is unmatched, and our industry is lucky to have him, our customers are very lucky to have him, and AGS is very very lucky to have him."

(Houston,TX) - MPLX LP said recently it is no longer pursuing a Permian to Gulf Coast natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline, called BANGL, after a collapse in oil prices and said it will focus on expanding capacity on existing pipelines instead.

The fractionation capacity and export facility associated with the BANGL project have also been deferred.

"We are working with others to optimize existing pipeline capacity ... we are still committed to an NGL solution. It just won't be the original scope that we had envisioned early on," Chief Executive Michael Hennigan said during the quarterly results call with analysts.

"We wanted to not commit to that full scope until we were really sure that the volume commitments would be there (and) with what's happening in the market, the volume commitments are slower."

Global oil demand has crashed about 30% as the coronavirus pandemic has restricted travel around the world and a brief price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia flooded the market with excess supplies.

U.S. crude prices plunged to trade in negative territory for the first time in history last month as storage filled rapidly.

Oil producers in the Permian, the largest shale basin in the country, and in the Bakken have already begun to slash output and curtail drilling in response to the price crash.

Work on the Wink-to-Webster Permian crude oil project, in which MPLX has a 15% equity ownership, is advancing, the company said during its first-quarter results call.

One hundred percent of the contractable capacity on the pipeline system is covered by MVCs (minimum volume commitments) or long-term contracts, a company executive said during the call.

The line is expected to be placed in service in the first half of 2021.

The Whistler natural gas pipeline project, which is expected to transport about 2 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of natural gas from Waha, Texas, to the Agua Dulce market in south Texas, also continued to progress, the company said.

The line is expected to start up in the second half of 2021.

The company cut its 2020 capital spending target by more than $700 million to about $1 billion.

Net loss attributable to MPLX was $2.7 billion in the first quarter 2020, compared with net income of $503 million for the first quarter of 2019.

A major project to transport natural gas from the North Sea to Denmark and Poland has taken a significant step forward.Italian firm Saipem signed a deal worth €280 million to build a gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea to connect the two countries.Poland imports most of its natural gas from Russia and the new pipeline has been hailed in Warsaw as a way of reducing dependence on Moscow.The EU has provided €215 million in funding for the Baltic Pipe Project, which will also allow Poland to supply gas to the Danish market.Poland's president, Andrzej Duda, has said the pipeline is scheduled to be launched on October 1, 2022."This is indeed very good news for Poland, and not only in the near future, but I deeply believe for decades," said Duda at a press conference recently.

"If we are talking about full diversification of gas supplies to Poland, if we are talking about full independence of Poland as a recipient from Russia, this is the milestone on the road to this non-dependence," he added.

From Norway to Poland, via Denmark

The Baltic Pipe Project will be constructed to link gas fields on the Norwegian shelf in the North Sea to Niechorze-Pogorzelica on the north Polish coast.

The total section underneath the Baltic Sea between Poland and Denmark is around 275 kilometres long, according to Saipem.

The Baltic Pipe Project says the building of the pipeline will contribute to reducing carbon dioxide emissions and improving air quality in Poland.

Saipem is expected to commence work in Poland and Denmark in the second half of this year. The laying of offshore pipes is later planned for the summer of 2021.

The new agreement was announced, despite a crash in the price of oil and gas in recent weeks during the coronavirus pandemic.

The West Kootenay Village of Fruitvale will be the site of a new state-of-the-art natural gas facility.

FortisBC is partnering with REN Energy International Corporation (REN Energy) to create Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) from wood waste sourced from Fruitvale’s ATCO Wood Products and other Kootenay forestry companies.

“The Village of Fruitvale is beyond excited,” said Fruitvale mayor Steve Morissette. “It’s a once in a lifetime thing, it doesn’t happen in small communities very often. It will offer good paying jobs and there’ll be plant operators, process operators, and typically fork lift drivers, and wood managers.”

The proposed site for the facility is at the old Park Siding ATCO mill about 6 km from Fruitvale in southeastern BC. The project will offer about 18 months of construction jobs and, once construction is complete, the plant will employ 30-35 local workers.

According to FortisBC Supply Manager Scott Gramm, Fortis will buy the gas generated by the facility and tap into its pipeline that runs near the Park Siding property.

“REN Energy chose that location because it was a source of wood waste and close to our pipeline at the same time,” said Gramm. “We’re talking like 300-metres from our transmission pipeline, it’s nice and close – so acceptable wood waste, acceptable pipeline.”

REN Energy is a global company whose goal is to reduce waste and improve the environment through the development of sustainable, clean fuel-based projects. REN seeks out opportunities to create partnerships with municipalities like Fruitvale and regional districts, forestry industry operators like ATCO, and financial partners like FortisBC to create essentially zero-emission energy products like RNG.

“The plant, the first of its kind in North America, will create an immediate annual economic impact in the Kootenay region,” said Philip Viggiani, president of REN Energy in a release. “As well, our future waste-to-energy project regions will carry similar economic impacts in regard to the creation of hundreds of direct and indirect jobs, significant in-community investments and, of course, the clean energy product we create.”

RNG is a carbon-neutral energy that is made from capturing the methane released from decomposing organic waste.

The project will make use of waste from forestry operations, sawmills and other wood product manufacturers and will speed up the natural process by creating syngas through gasification. The syngas is further converted to methane and then purified to meet natural gas line specifications.

The output is expected to be substantial, and FortisBC estimates over one million gigajoules of energy will be created annually from the facility.

“The average household uses about 90-ish,” explained Gramm. “So we’re talking enough gas to sustain 10,000 to 12,000 homes annually.”

The construction on the facility will begin in the fall, and is expected to be up and running in late 2021, early 2022, says Gramm.

Once operational, the technology will create a use for forestry waste in B.C. and unlock the potential for significant new volumes of RNG in the province.

“We are extremely pleased with our FortisBC agreement spanning 20 years, to provide RNG to our fellow B.C. customers,” said Viggiani. “REN Energy plans to be a major factor in assisting with the FortisBC mandate of creating carbon-neutral RNG.”

When economically feasible, REN Energy intends to benefit both the province and the forestry industry by cleaning up and processing brush piles, and thereby mitigate potential forest fires.

Furthermore, the REN facility will create a market for local forest companies in a time when they need it most.

“It will for sure help our forest industry,” said Morissette. “It will help ILMA – the Interior Lumber Manufacturers’ Association – because they (REN) will be sourcing a lot of the waste wood from them.”

The ground-breaking project’s use of carbon-neutral energies is a crucial element of FortisBC’s 30BY30 target.

(Washington, D. C.) — The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is planning to complete an environmental assessment by July 31 for a pair of Enable Gas Transmission and Enable Gulf Run Transmission projects that would add a combined 134 miles of pipeline and allow bi-directional flows and shipment of about 1.65 Bcf/d of natural gas to a Louisiana delivery point.

The Gulf Run project entails about 134 miles of new 42-inch-diameter pipeline, running from Westdale to Starks, Louisiana, along with a new meter and regulation station and appurtenant facilities. The Line CP project entails modifications to two compressor stations and three M&R and two new M&R stations in Texas and Louisiana.

The abbreviated applications (CP20-68, CP20-70), filed February 28, were scaled back from the 2.8 Bcf/d version Enable pitched for pre-filing review in March 2019 which would also have entailed a 36-mile lateral running to Gillis and two new compressor stations.

FERC has also shrunk its review from an environmental impact statement to an environmental assessment, saying Enable had determined that certain originally planned pipeline and compression facilities considered during pre-filing review were no longer needed.

Due to Enable's removal of those, many of the comments responding to a notice of intent were no longer relevant and FERC staff has determined that an environmental assessment is the appropriate means to evaluate the project, the commission said.

Under a schedule released Tuesday, other federal agencies participating in the review would have until October 29 to render their final decisions.

According to the project applications, Enable has executed one precedent agreement with Golden Pass LNG, the cornerstone shipper, for 1.1 Bfcf/d, representing 67% of the project capacity.

Enable has sought FERC authorizations in the first quarter of 2021 in order to be able to place the facilities into service in the second half of 2022, the in-service date agreed to by Gulf Run and Golden Pass LNG, it said in the application.

(As reported by RigZone)

(Houston, TX) Siemens Gas and Power GmbH & Co. KG reported recently that it has won a contract to supply compression equipment for Midcoast Energy, LLC’s CJ Express natural gas pipeline expansion project in East Texas.

“The beauty of this project is that the majority of the equipment will be manufactured by Siemens Gas and Power facilities in the U.S.,” remarked Patrice Laporte, Americas vice president of Siemens Energy Oil and Gas Division, in a written statement emailed to Rigzone.

The company noted that it will supply two SGT-400 gas turbine compression packages for pipeline expansion project. It added the project’s engineering, procurement and contracting (EPC) provider is WHC Energy Services, supported by Universal Pegasus International.

Siemens will build the compressors at its facility in Olean, N.Y., and package the SGT-400 gas turbine at its Telge Road facility in Houston. The company noted the mechanical-drive compression packages will be capable of producing a total of 39,000 horsepower for an expansion at an existing compressor station.

“This project marks a key milestone as the U.S. pipeline industry realizes the breadth of reliable, cost-effective solutions we can provide in this power range,” stated Laporte.

In late-February of this year, Midcoast – a unit of the private equity firm ArcLight Capital Partners – reported that it had made a positive final investment decision and entered into definitive, long-term anchor shipper agreements to support its CJ Express Expansion Project. The project will add compression and pipeline facilities along Midstream’s East Texas pipeline system, the ArcLight portfolio company stated. Moreover, it noted the expansion will boost gathering capabilities in the Shelby Trough area of the Haynesville Shale and raise its Clarity pipeline transmission capacity to the Gulf Coast to 1 billion cubic feet per day.

Siemens noted the first gas turbine compression trains will be shipped later this year. Midcoast has reported the CJ Express expansion should conclude in early 2021.