Williams Partners LP has started a binding open season 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 September 2015. The Virginia Southside Expansion Project is designed to provide service on the Transco pipeline from its existing Zone 6 Station 210 pooling point in Mercer County, NJ, to delivery points along Transco’s South Virginia Lateral.
The company executed a precedent agreement to provide Dominion Virginia Power with 250 MMcfd of the capacity and will solicit bids in the open season from shippers for additional deliveries along the project path. Dominion would use its capacity for a 1,300-Mw, combined-cycle natural gas-fired power station it plans to build in Brunswick County, Va.
Results of the open season, which closes Apr. 25, will determine the capacity, scope, and cost of the project. Work is also pending regulatory approval.
Williams owns 72% of Williams Partners, including the general-partner interest.
Williams last month agreed to acquire Caiman Eastern Midstream LLC, expanding its presence in the NGL-rich portions of the Marcellus shale. Transco runs through eastern Pennsylvania, and other planned expansion projects on the pipeline will increase direct access to the Marcellus and Utica plays by late 2014 (OGJ Online, Mar. 20, 2012).
Contact Christopher E. Smith at [email protected].