Enstor Storage Looking to Revive a Dead Texas Gas Storage Project

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Enstor Storage LLC (Houston, Texas), a unit of ScottishPower's (NYSE:SPI ) (Glasgow Scotland) PPM Energy Incorporated (Portland, Oregon), is in the early planning phases to develop the Houston Storage Hub natural gas storage project near Liberty, Texas. The proposed $120-170 million project was once referred to as the Liberty Storage Project and was being developed by Aquila Incorporated (Kansas City, Missouri), who, in turn, sold it to PPM Energy's parent company, ScottishPower PLC, in an effort to shore up Aquila's balance sheet in the wake of the Enron debacle.

The proposed Houston Storage Hub is a salt dome structure gas storage project, with an ultimate storage capacity of 18 billion cubic feet. The current strategy is to construct it in three equal phases of 6 billion cubic feet of working gas capacity each, with the first phase predicted to become operational in late 2007. A central facility to supply compression, dehydration, and processing will be constructed in three phases, as well. Each phase will entail 12,000 horsepower of compression split into three fabricated compressor sets, utilizing 4,000 horsepower Caterpillar internal combustion engines. When completed, the facility will have a total daily injection and withdrawal capacity of 700 million cubic feet and 1.5 billion cubic feet, respectively. To connect the natural gas storage facility to market, an initial 10-mile dual 24"-diameter pipeline will be constructed.

As it stands now, Enstor completed an open season for firm storage capacity in October 2004. The early results were positive and Enstor has progressed to the preliminary estimating phase. In doing so, Enstor retained the services of TKE (Houston, Texas). Enstor expects to file preliminary applications with the FERC for the storage part of the project in January 2005 and will use it as a litmus test for the filing of the surface facilities. All things considered, Enstor anticipates beginning de-brining the phase I cavern in late 2005 and plans to begin construction on the surface facilities in early 2006.

In another storage project being developed by Enstor, the Houston, Texas, office of the firm, ForeRunner Corporation (Lakewood, Colorado) has been selected to provide engineering services for the Waha Storage project near Fort Stockton, Texas.

For details, see related news article - Enstor Incorporated Announces Plans for a New Natural Gas Storage Facility in Texas

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