FERC issued an order approving construction of Constitution Pipeline’s proposed pipeline to increase natural gas supply to New York and New England markets, subject to certain conditions that will ensure the protection of natural resources. FERC on Dec. 2, 2014 issued its certificate of public convenience and necessity for the 124-mile Constitution Pipeline.
ONEOK Partners completed the acquisition of natural gas liquids (NGL) pipelines and related assets from affiliates of Chevron for approximately $800 million. ONEOK Partners now owns an 80 percent interest in the West Texas LPG Pipeline Limited Partnership (West Texas LPG) and 100 percent interest in the Mesquite Pipeline (Mesquite), which collectively consists of approximately 2,600 miles of NGL gathering pipelines extending from the Permian Basin in southeastern New Mexico to East Texas and Mont Belvieu, Texas.
Duke Energy and Piedmont Natural Gas selected Dominion to build and operate the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a 550-mile interstate natural gas pipeline from West Virginia, through Virginia and into eastern North Carolina to meet the region’s rapidly growing demand for natural gas.
Boart Longyear was awarded a contract for drilling services at the Magnum NGLs (natural gas liquids) Storage Project at central Utah's Western Energy Hub. Magnum is building the first underground salt cavern NGLs storage facility in the Rocky Mountain region at the site. Development will include the construction of solution-mined storage caverns in a salt dome approximately 3,000 feet below the natural surface. Initially, the facility will feature two caverns each capable of storing between 1 and 2 million barrels of NGLs such as propane and butane.
Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) plans to invest in long-term natural gas supplies, which the company believes will save customers money and keep fuel costs lower. FPL is partnering with PetroQuest Energy, to develop up to 38 natural gas production wells in the Woodford Shale region in southeastern Oklahoma. PetroQuest will oversee and operate those wells. FPL will receive a portion of the natural gas produced from each well for its use.
DTE Energy's gas storage and pipeline segment secured long-term gathering commitments with Southwestern Energy and Cabot Oil & Gas to expand the Bluestone Pipeline. The incremental Bluestone Pipeline capacity is supported by long-term agreements with minimum term commitments ranging from 10 to15 years. Once in-service, the expansion facilities will increase the capacity of the Bluestone Pipeline from 600,000 Dth/day to 975,000 Dth/day, a greater than 60% increase in capacity since the gathering system first came online in late 2012.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved Williams Partners and its wholly-owned subsidiary Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company’s (Transco) application to construct and operate two related projects designed to increase natural gas delivery capacity to Brooklyn and Queens in time for next winter's heating season. Transco will begin construction in June and plans to bring the projects into service in the fourth quarter of 2014.
El Paso Pipeline Partners acquired from Kinder Morgan Inc., KMI’s 50 percent interest in Ruby Pipeline, 50 percent interest in Gulf LNG and 47.5 percent interest in Young Gas Storage. The transaction value is approximately $2 billion, including $1.012 billion of proportionate debt at Ruby and Gulf LNG, resulting in an equity purchase price of $972 million. EPB plans to fund 10 percent of the transaction value, net of the proportionate debt, with EPB common units that will be issued to KMI at closing valued at approximately $97.2 million.
NTE Energy plans to develop, own and operate the Pecan Creek Energy Center, located near Sweetwater, Texas. The energy center will utilize the M501GAC-FAST combustion turbine in simple cycle that will be supplied by Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas (MHPSA). The permit applications and its generation interconnection request have been filed with ERCOT. The project is expected to begin construction in the fourth quarter 2014 and become fully operational in the second quarter 2016.
Williams Partners received Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approval to expand Transco, the nation’s largest natural gas pipeline system, to provide service to a new, gas-fired, power-generation plant in Virginia. The approximately $300 million Transco Virginia Southside Expansion is designed to provide 270,000 dekatherms per day (dth/d) of incremental transportation capacity in Virginia and North Carolina by September 2015.