Natural-gas pipelines with ties to midstate move forward

A pipeline project spearheaded by a subsidiary of UGI has received enough interest from potential natural-gas customers that it will be moving forward. In a separate project, a company that plans to build a pipeline in Lebanon and Lancaster counties also wants to construct a line in western Pennsylvania.

PennEast

The PennEast Pipeline, a joint venture based in Berks County and led by UGI Energy Services, just closed its binding open season on the project. This means the project received enough commitments to ensure there is enough interest — and money — for the project to continue.

PennEast is investing nearly $1 billion to build the pipeline. The costs will be split equally among UGIES, which is part of Montgomery County-based UGI Corp. and sister to Berks-based UGI Utilities Inc., and partners Atlanta-based AGL Resources, South Jersey Industries and NJR Pipeline Co., a subsidiary of New Jersey Resources.

The proposed 100-mile route runs through Carbon, Northampton and Bucks counties in Pennsylvania and Hunterdon and Mercer counties in New Jersey.

“This successful open season demonstrates the demand for natural gas and the need for safe, reliable transportation infrastructure to address delivery constraints,” Peter Terranova, chairman of the PennEast Pipeline board of managers, said in a news release. “The PennEast Pipeline is a critical step to bringing low-cost Marcellus Shale gas to Pennsylvania and New Jersey utility customers and other mid-Atlantic downstream markets.”

Western Marcellus

The other project, proposed by Williams Cos., which owns controlling interest in Williams Partners LP, announced an open season for the Western Marcellus Pipeline Project through Sept. 29.

The pipeline is an expansion of the Transco interstate pipeline to provide more natural-gas transportation capacity to growing markets in the Mid-Atlantic and southeastern United States by late 2018, according to a news release. Transco is a wholly owned subsidiary of Williams Partners.

“The Western Marcellus Pipeline Project will, for the first time, offer Western Marcellus and Utica producers serviced by Williams’ Ohio Valley Midstream direct access to the broad range of Transco markets in the Mid-Atlantic and southeastern states, as far south as Florida,” Rory Miller, senior vice president of Williams’ Atlantic-Gulf operating area, said in the release. “In addition, this groundbreaking project would provide enhanced supply access for burgeoning Louisiana and Texas Gulf Coast markets.”

The line would provide between 1 billion and more than 2 billion cubic feet per day of new natural-gas transportation capacity from rigs tapping the Marcellus and Utica shales. The gas would reach as far south as Mississippi and would include parts of Pennsylvania. It also would connect Williams’ Ohio Valley Midstream processing and gathering system in northern West Virginia with the Transco pipeline, the largest volume pipeline system in the United States, according to the release.

Williams is also behind the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline, which is made up of the Central Penn South and Central Penn North sections and would stretch from Susquehanna County through Lebanon County to connect to the main Transco line in Lancaster County. Williams has not yet filed a formal application for the project with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has say over whether and where it would be constructed. There has been strong landholder opposition to the project in Lebanon and Lancaster counties.

The Western Marcellus and Atlantic Sunrise are part of $3.3 billion in capital expenditures planned through 2017 on Transco growth projects designed to serve markets in the Northeast, Williams said.

Source; Central Penn Business Journal