El Paso Natural Gas Nearing Construction Phase on a New Expansion Project

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). El Paso Natural Gas Company is awaiting approval from the FERC to begin construction on its Line 2000 Power-Up Project. El Paso will install compressor equipment to yield a total of 151,600 horsepower to be located at four new compressor stations, and additions to five existing compressor stations across the states of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

Click on image at right to view the 2000 Power Up Project Compressor Addition List

The $173 million Power-Up Project will be completed in three phases with construction beginning on the first phase in mid-to-late 2003 and the last phase coming on line in late 2005. The only new transmission pipe involved will be to connect the new compressor stations. The compressor units will be turbine-based and will compose of two Centaur 50's, ten Taurus 70's and four Mars 100's turbine units. When completed the pipeline capacity will be increased by 320 mmscfd to a total of 550 mmscfd of natural gas with the majority being delivered to the California border.

El Paso Natural Gas Company is a subsidiary of the El Paso Corporation (NYSE:EP) (Houston, Texas) and operates 10,200 miles of natural gas transmission pipeline with 1.2 million horsepower of compression. This pipeline system serves the growth markets of California, New Mexico and the southwest US. The El Paso Corporation also owns & operates ANR Pipeline, Tennessee Gas Pipeline, Colorado Interstate Gas and Southern Natural Gas.