Natural Gas

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has given the green light to Tulsa-based Williams to expand its Transco gas pipeline to serve the energy-hungry northeastern U.S.

The Sentinel expansion project is designed to increase Transco’s firm transportation capacity by 142,000 dekatherms a day, according to Phil Wright, president of Williams’ gas pipeline business. He adds that Phase 1 of the expansion will provide 40,000 dekatherms a day as early as Nov. 1, while Phase 2 will provide the remaining 102,000 dekatherms per day a year later on Nov. 1, 2009.

“We appreciate the efforts of the FERC and other state and federal agencies in reviewing this application,” Wright says. “We are committed to continuing to work with the FERC, state and county permitting agencies and all of the stakeholders involved, to construct this project in a safe, responsible manner so that we can provide much-needed incremental natural gas capacity to tis part of the country.”

The project calls for adding or replacing about 18 miles of pipe at different locations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as well as modifying Transco Station 195 in Delta, Pa.

The Transco pipeline is a 10,500-mile system. This expansion will increase the total system capacity of the Transco line to about 8.3 billion cubic feet per day.

Stay tuned. More to come. The race to get more pipe in the ground is heating up as companies rush to get new supplies coming online to the major markets. Their challenges: rising cost of steel for pipes, a lack of resources, a lack of trained welders specializing in welding pipe to name just a couple. Watch the race heat up over the next few weeks and months.

–John A. Sullivan, News Editor, Oil and Gas Investor, www.OilandGasInvestor.com, jsullivan@hartenergy.com

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