New Life for El Paso's Cypress Natural Gas Pipeline Project

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Southern Natural Gas Company (Birmingham, Alabama), a subsidiary of El Paso Corporation (NYSE:EP) (Houston, Texas), has received firm commitments from BG LNG Services LLC (Houston, Texas) and Progress Energy Florida Incorporated (Saint Petersburg, Florida) a subsidiary of Progress Energy Incorporated (NYSE:PGN) (Raleigh, North Carolina) for its long-planned Cypress Pipeline during an open season held during this past December and January. The Cypress Pipeline was first proposed during 2000, but was put on indefinite hold, due to lackluster demand. Southern Natural hopes these new commitments will enable it to proceed with the pipeline in a multiple-phased development scheme.

The first phase of the project proposes the construction of approximately 175 miles of 24-inch-diameter pipeline with an initial capacity of 220 million cubic feet per day of natural gas. The pipeline will originate at the Elba Island LNG terminal near Savannah, Georgia, owned by Southern LNG Incorporated, another subsidiary of El Paso, and will terminate near Jacksonville, Florida. The second and third phases of the project will increase the daily transmission capacity of the pipeline by adding three new compressor stations.

The second phase will entail the construction of a single compressor station near Waynesville, in Brunswick County, Georgia. Southern Natural has not made a determination if this station will be based on a single electric drive compressor set or a single 10,300 horsepower Solar Taurus T-70 turbine compressor package.

During the third phase, Southern Natural intends to construct one compressor station in Liberty County, Georgia, and a compressor station in Nassau County, Florida. The proposed compressor station for Liberty County would follow the same guidelines as the Waynesville compressor station, in respect to electric drive or Solar turbine. The compressor station planned for Nassau County would most likely be a single 10,300 horsepower Solar Taurus T-70 turbine compressor package.

Southern Natural has retained the services of Gulf Interstate Engineering Company (Houston, Texas) for the engineering and project management of the Cypress Pipeline. Southern Natural hopes to file the Cypress Pipeline project with the FERC in the late second or early third quarter of 2005 and bids for the general contractors should be let in the spring of 2006. Construction on the first phase could begin as early as the fall of 2006 with a completion date slated for early May 2007. The second and third phases would follow at one-year intervals, with the completion of the second phase occurring in 2008, and the completion of the third phase in 2009. The completion dates for the second and third phases could be pushed out one year, due to market conditions.

Industrialinfo.com has been tracking the progress of the Cypress Pipeline since September 2000.

View Project Report - 05001944 05002597 17001327 17001328

For more information see - Florida's Growing Appetite for Natural Gas is Being Driven by Electrical Power Projects in Progress

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