Dominion Transmission Corporation Sets Sights on a New Underground Natural Gas Storage Facility in Louisiana

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Dominion Transmission Corporation (Clarksburg, West Virginia) is planning to construct a new underground natural gas storage facility near Hackberry Louisiana. The three existing salt caverns at the Hackberry location have a capacity of just over 17 bcf and need only to be de-brined to be ready for service. Dominion hopes to begin work on the caverns in late 2003 and begin construction on the related surface facilities in the spring of 2004. The associated surface facilities will include a 30,000 horsepower compressor station based on internal combustion engines and reciprocating compressors.

Two lateral pipelines will extend from the storage site. The first will extend 15 miles to the southeast to an interconnect with the Natural Gas Pipe Line of America and the second will extend 17 miles to the southwest and interconnect with William's Transco line near compressor station #65. When completed in April of 2005 the storage project will have a maximum withdrawal rate of 800 mmscfd for service to these two lines.

Universal Ensco Incorporated (Houston, Texas) was awarded the detailed engineering contract for the facility. Dominion plans on filing an application with the FERC in September of 2003.

Dominion operates the worlds largest underground gas storage system totaling nearly 900 bcf of capacity located in Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York. Dominion Transmission Corporation is a subsidiary of Dominion Resources Incorporated (Richmond, Virginia:NYSE/D). Dominion Resources has 15,000 employees and owns over 24,000 megawatts of electrical generation, 6,000 miles of electrical transmission lines, 7,600 miles of natural gas transmission lines and 5.1 Tcf in proven reserves. Dominion Resources generated $6.8 billion in revenue on $24 billion in assets with an operating cash flow of $1.6 billion in 2001. Dominion Resources like so many other energy companies is in the mist of restructuring its balance sheet to strengthen its asset side.

Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated (IIR) has developed a comprehensive U.S. Natural Gas Pipeline & Compressor Station Database detailing over 1,300 compressor stations, including the make & model of the prime driver & horsepower of each unit, date of installation, type of compressor, and station contact details for each station.