Williams Partners' Transco Pipeline in agreement, announces open season

Williams Partners L.P. (NYSE: WPZ) announced on April 4 that it is initiating a binding open season to April 25 for an expansion of its Transco interstate pipeline to provide incremental firm natural gas transportation capacity to markets in southern Virginia and northern North Carolina by 2015.

Williams owns 72 percent of Williams Partners, including the general-partner interest.

The Virginia Southside Expansion Project is being designed to provide incremental firm transportation service on the Transco pipeline from its existing Zone 6 Station 210 pooling point in Mercer County, N.J., to delivery points along Transco's South Virginia Lateral. The company has executed a precedent agreement to provide Dominion Virginia Power with 250,000 dekatherms per day of the capacity and will solicit bids in the open season from shippers for additional deliveries along the project path. The proposed in-service date is September 2015.

Dominion Virginia Power would use its capacity for a 1,300-megawatt, combined-cycle, natural gas-fired power station that it plans to build in Brunswick County, Va.

"Williams is excited by this opportunity to partner with Dominion to serve Virginia's power needs and open this part of the Commonwealth to additional economic development," said Randy Barnard, president of Williams Partners' natural gas pipeline business.

Spectra Energy secures two shippers for Texas Eastern expansion

HOUSTON, Texas - Spectra Energy Corp.'s Texas Eastern Transmission, LP on Jan. 17 announced it has reached binding agreements with two anchor shippers for its TEAM 2014 project, an expansion of its existing Texas Eastern system to deliver additional emerging Appalachian shale natural gas supplies to diverse markets in the Northeast, Midwest and Southern U.S.

The commitments provide sufficient market support to proceed with the development of the TEAM 2014 project. Texas Eastern will solicit interest from additional shippers through a binding open season that began on Jan. 17 and will end Feb. 17.

TEAM 2014, with an estimated fourth quarter 2014 in-service date, reflects a fully scalable capacity expansion of up to 1.4 billion cubic feet per day, including the volume of the two anchor shippers. Because Texas Eastern is expanding its existing pipeline system, the expansion project can be sized to meet the needs of the two anchor shippers as well as additional shippers that may be identified during the binding open season.

The company currently estimates the expansion will result in a capital investment of approximately $500 million, which could potentially increase based on the results of the open season.

Interested shippers will have the opportunity to nominate transportation services from multiple existing and proposed receipt points in West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania to multiple delivery points across the Northeast, Midwest and Southeast U.S. markets.

Williams Partners applies to expand natural gas service to Southeast

TULSA, Okla. - Williams Partners L.P. (NYSE: WPZ) on Nov. 2 announced that it has filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to expand its Transco natural gas pipeline by 225,000 dekatherms per day to serve markets in the Southeastern U.S.

New service from the Mid-South Expansion project would be available in two phases, subject to FERC approval.

Phase 1 would increase capacity by 95,000 dekatherms per day by the fall of 2012, while Phase II would increase capacity by 130,000 dekatherms per day by the summer of 2013.

Demand for natural gas in the Southeastern U.S. is growing at a rate more than twice the national average.

The Mid-South Expansion project is designed to transport natural gas from Transco's Station 85 pool to new and existing power generation and municipal facilities in the Southeast.

"This filing is an important milestone in our efforts to meet our customers' growing needs for natural gas in the Southeast," said Phil Wright, president of Williams' natural gas pipeline business. "We look forward to continuing to work with all stakeholders to successfully implement this project."

Enbridge Energy Partners plans $141.8 million Texas pipelines expansion

HOUSTON - Enbridge Energy Partners LP is planning to expand its East Texas Gas Gathering System.
The partnership will construct three new lateral pipelines linking with the Haynesville Shale play. In addition, it is also planning to build a large diameter lateral from Shelby County to Carthage, Texas.
Total project cost is approximately $141.8 million, which includes approximately 50 miles of 16-inch to 24-inch diameter pipe as well as an additional 38-mile, 24-inch lateral pipeline.
The expansions will increase the partnership's takeaway capacity to 900 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d).

Atlanta Gas Light says pipeline plan would boost service

ATLANTA, Ga. - Speaking before the Georgia Public Service Commission, company executives of Atlanta Gas Light (AGL) said approval of the first three-year phase of the gas pipeline improvement plan would decrease the risk of outages for about 160,000 AGL customers in seven metro Atlanta communities: Gwinnett, Henry and Paulding counties, and Marietta, Conyers, Cumming and Newnan.
AGL said the planned expansion of pipeline capacity and natural gas storage facilities would reinforce its ability to provide gas service even if temperatures dipped to 10 degrees.
Expansion is necessary to meet the demand for gas that has increased with population growth in some areas outside the Perimeter, the company said.
The project has attracted attention because of its cost and because the utility has proposed to pay for it through a surcharge on ratepayers rather than making a standard rate recovery case before the PSC.
Critics, including consumer advocates, maintain that surcharge cases require less scrutiny of a company’s proposal, and that they can lead to overcharges.
Residential customers would pay an additional surcharge of 95 cents a month if the project is approved, on top of an existing monthly surcharge of $1.95. That fee pays for a pipeline replacement program AGL started in 1998.