Columbia Gulf Transmission is asking federal regulators to authorize the Louisiana XPress Project, designed to move natural gas from the Appalachian Basin to high-demand markets in Louisiana and elsewhere on the Gulf Coast, S&P Global Platts reports.
Stretching 3340 miles, Columbia Gulf connects to virtually every major pipeline in the U.S. Gulf Coast and to additional Midwestern lines. It wants the Federal Energy Regulator Commission, or FERC, to act quickly on its certificate authorization for the Louisiana project, warning it is critical to begin construction in September to avoid the rainy season and meet the Feb. 1, 2022, in-service target.
As S&P Global Platts reports, the project would create incremental mainline capacity on Columbia Gulf’s system, and—combined with utilization of existing capacity—allow transportation service on a north-to-south path from Columbia Gulf’s Mainline pool to a primary delivery point at an interconnection with Kinder Morgan Louisiana Pipeline in Evangeline Parish.
LAXP includes three new compressor stations in East Carroll, Catahoula, and Evangeline parishes as well as upgrades at an existing compressor station in Rapides Parish.
The project will mainly provide additional supply into Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG export facility in Cameron Parish. The facility currently has five liquefaction trains online with the most recent train entering service in March 2019 and the sixth 0.7 Bcf/d liquefaction train roughly 70% complete and expected to enter commercial service by 2022.
Columbia Gulf received an environmental assessment from FERC staff Feb. 6, finding no significant impact, provided that certain mitigating measures are implemented. But the project has not yet received its certificate.
The company plans to start building in September with the goal of completing construction in November 2021 and conducting commissioning and testing November 2021 through January 2022.
S&P Global Platts has the full story. Read the letter from Columbia Gulf Transmission to FERC.
