Falcon buys Hill-Lake gas storage facility in Texas

April 3, 2001
Falcon Gas Storage Co., Houston, has acquired the Hill-Lake natural gas storage facility 100 miles west of Dallas, Tex., in Eastland County from TXU Lone Star Pipeline Co., Dallas. Falcon plans to add more compression, retrofit surface facilities, and drill horizontal injection/withdrawal wells to transform the Hill-Lake facility into a high-deliverability, multi-cycle gas storage facility.


By the OGJ Online Staff


HOUSTON, Apr. 3�Falcon Gas Storage Co., Houston, has acquired the Hill-Lake natural gas storage facility 100 miles west of Dallas, Tex., in Eastland County from TXU Lone Star Pipeline Co., Dallas.

Operating as a single-cycle gas storage facility since the early 1960s, Hill-Lake has been used primarily to serve the Abilene market during the winter heating season.

Falcon plans to add more compression, retrofit surface facilities, and drill horizontal injection/withdrawal wells to transform the Hill-Lake facility into a high-deliverability, multi-cycle (HDMC) gas storage facility capable of 4-6 annual inventory cycles with peak withdrawal capacity of more than 300,000 MMbtu/d.

In addition, Falcon will construct a 16-mile, 20-in. high-pressure pipeline to connect the Hill-Lake facility with TXU Lone Star Pipeline Co.�s "X" line, as well as the North Texas Pipeline jointly owned by TXU Fuels Co. and El Paso Natural Gas Co.

These two major 36-in. gas transmission pipelines traverse the energy corridor from the Waha Hub in West Texas to the Carthage Hub in East Texas.

Hill-Lake will enable Falcon to provide storage services to gas utilities and marketers serving the residential, commercial, and industrial loads in Dallas and surrounding areas. In addition, Hill-Lake can supply gas-fired electric generating facilities being built along the Waha-Carthage corridor.