El Paso Natural Gas Co. has refiled plans for a $241.5 million system expansion program with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
It cited increasing gas supplies-mainly coalbed methane-in the San Juan basin of New Mexico and Colorado as a major factor in its 835 MMcfd expansion effort. That volume of gas can back out as much as 138,000 b/d of imported oil, the company pointed out.
Planned for start-up in the spring of 1992, the expansion will permit El Paso to step up deliveries to California, Midwest, and eastern U.S. markets.
El Paso asked the FERC for an optional, expedited certificate for its expansion. Under this "fast track" procedure, regulatory processing time is reduced because the pipeline agrees to assume all of the project's financial risk.
WHAT'S PLANNED
El Paso's plan includes an added 400 MMcfd of capacity on its northern mainline system, which extends from the San Juan area to the Arizona-California border, along with repiping of compression and addition of metering facilities to permit bidirectional flow through its Permian basin-San Juan crossover line.
The crossover line extends from El Paso's Plains compressor station in West Texas to an intersection with the San Juan basin and northern mainline facilities near Gallup, N.M. The crossover line currently can move gas east to west only.
Expansion of the northern mainline system will require 178 miles of loop, an added 23,516 hp in compression, and added metering equipment.
This part of the expansion will permit increased deliveries to existing utilities in California and to Mojave Pipeline Co. Mojave, a partnership of El Paso and Enron Corp., has received FERC approval to lay an interstate pipeline from the Arizona-California border into the heavy oil fields of Central California.
Expansion of the San Juan system will require 54 miles of pipeline loop, 12,000 hp more compression, and added metering facilities.
The revamped crossover will be able to move 429 MMcfd of gas east from the San Juan basin to the Plains compressor station, near Denver City, Tex., for further shipment to the east.
El Paso previously filed an overall expansion proposal under the traditional certification procedure, but no approvals resulted.
El Paso withdrew the earlier application. An official explained "time is of the essence" in getting the expansion in place, and it had become clear the earlier filing "was going nowhere fast."
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