FERC Approves NGPL Expansion to Serve Gulf Coast LNG Exports

P&GJ Staff Report

HOUSTON (P&GJ) — The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has given Kinder Morgan's Natural Gas Pipeline of America (NGPL) a green light to start construction on Phase 2 of its Gulf Coast Southbound Expansion Project. 

The project is designed to leverage the NGPL system to connect increasing U.S. natural gas supplies with growing industrial demand and export opportunities in the Texas Gulf Coast area.

In a letter dated Tuesday, FERC granted an NGPL request made earlier in March "to proceed with construction and abandonment activities as part of the Gulf Coast Southbound Project in Victoria, Wharton, and Harrison Counties, Texas."

The FERC letter said NGPL's implementation plan and supplemental materials included all of the information necessary to meet applicable pre-construction environmental conditions.

Phase 1 of the Gulf Coast Southbound Expansion Project was placed in service in October 2018 to provide long-term contracted customers with additional firm transportation capacity of 460,000 Dth/d from NGPL’s interstate pipeline interconnects in Illinois, Arkansas and Texas to markets in NGPL’s South Texas zone.

Phase 2 of the expansion project is under contract with a third party and will provide an additional 300,000 Dth/d of firm southbound capacity. Kinder Morgan has said that this phase is expected to be placed into service in mid-2021 pending appropriate regulatory approvals. A company spokesperson told P&GJ on Wednesday that the schedule has not changed.

Gulf Coast Southbound is one of several projects to boost gas deliveries to LNG liquefaction and export facilities along the coast, where NGPL has established its place as a major transporter to an expanding market.  It is adding compression to its Gulf Coast Mainline system to increase transportation to the Corpus Christi market

NGPL also has been seeking non-binding solicitations of interest for a third phase of the project to provide for 260,000 Dth/d of incremental firm southbound transportation service from existing or new interconnects on NGPL’s system in Illinois and Iowa to growing markets on its LA Line along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast.

NGPL is jointly owned by Kinder Morgan and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. The entity has a dedicated management team and is operated by Kinder Morgan. It operates 9,100 miles of pipeline, more than 1 million compression horsepower and 288 Bcf of working gas storage.

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