Boardwalk Pipeline Beefs up 2017 Capex to $850 Million

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP (NYSE:BWP) (Houston, Texas) has announced the completion of major projects in 2016 and the addition of new projects to help increase the company's pipeline and storage capacity. Industrial Info is tracking more than $683 million in active Boardwalk projects.

Chief Financial Officer Jamie Buskill discussed the company's planned capital expenditures during Boardwalk Pipeline's recent earnings presentation. "We invested $590 million in capital in 2016, comprised of $469 million in growth capital and $121 million in maintenance capital. For 2017, we are forecasting total capital expenditures of approximately $850 million, $710 million of growth capital and $140 million in maintenance capital," said Buskill.

Chief Executive Officer Stan Horton, discussing the company's performance in 2016, said: "We placed into service four new projects, representing a total of $350 million of budgeted capital spending, and these projects were completed on time and collectively under budget. Three of these projects, facilities that serve a power plant in south Texas, the southern Indiana lateral, and the Western Kentucky lateral, represent approximately 470,000 MMBtu (million British thermal units) a day of demand for new power and industrial end users. The fourth project, the Ohio-to-Louisiana Access project, provided Texas Gas the ability to physically flow natural gas on a bidirectional basis. Now approximately half of the project's 626,000 MMBtu a day of north-to-south capacity is providing transportation service through the new Sabine Pass Liquefaction LNG (liquefied natural gas) export facility."

Among the projects mentioned by Horton is the $65 million Western Kentucky pipeline lateral, which was completed in August of last year. The 22.5-mile pipeline transports up to 230 million cubic feet per day of natural gas from Texas Gas Transmission LLC's (a subsidiary of Boardwalk) compressor station in Bremen, Kentucky, to Tennessee Valley Authority's (Knoxville, Tennessee) planned combined-cycle natural gas-fired power plant in Muhlenburg County, Kentucky.

Cheniere Energy's (NYSE:LNG) (Houston, Texas) Sabine Pass LNG export terminal in Louisiana is the first LNG export terminal to begin operations in the U.S. and began exporting in February last year. This is not the only LNG export facility Boardwalk will be supplying. The company recently began construction on the Coastal Bend Header project, which will supply Freeport LNG's (Houston, Texas) LNG liquefaction and export plant in Quintana, Texas. The project, when completed in 2018, will deliver up to 1.4 billion cubic feet per day to serve the facility.

Horton also discussed new projects added to the company's books during the year. "During the year, we added to our project list four new projects totaling $85 million of capex. These projects include ... new projects on Boardwalk Louisiana Midstream to construct new pipelines and storage facilities to serve new petrochemical loads."

Among these projects is Boardwalk Louisiana Midstream's plans to convert a natural gas storage cavern in Plaquemine, Louisiana, to a natural gas liquids (NGL) storage facility. The project involves converting a 6.67-billion-cubic-foot (Bcf) natural gas storage facility to hold NGLs. The conversion is expected to begin this summer and be completed by the end of the year. Accompanying this project is a $15 million NGL truck loading rack addition to send and receive the NGL via tanker truck.

Among the other Boardwalk projects being tracked by Industrial Info is the addition of a grassroot natural gas compressor station near Cincinnati, Ohio, to the company's Northern Supply Access project. The compressor station will transport up to 378 million cubic feet per day. Construction is planned to kick off during the second quarter of this year and be completed in the fourth quarter.

Information on these and other projects can be found in Industrial Info's North American Project Platform.

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