Northern Natural Gas Plans to Replace Compressors in Iowa

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Northern Natural Gas Company (Omaha, Nebraska), a business unit of MidAmerica Energy Holdings Company (Des Moines, Iowa), a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway (Omaha, Nebraska) (NYSE:BRK.A) , is planning to replace some of its compressor units at the Oakland natural gas compressor station, located in Pottawattamie County Iowa. As a part of Northern Natural's $90 million 2005 capital and maintenance budget, the compressor replacement project will not only modernize the station, but will, as well, reduce air emissions.

The $20 million project proposes to replace nine existing Worthington horizontal compressors, totaling 14,000 horsepower, with a single 13,500 horsepower Solar Mars turbine compressor package. The five operational Clark vertical compressors, totaling 17,000 horsepower, will remain in place with a few modifications. In an effort to improve the ambient air quality of the site, the height of the stacks for the five Clark units will be increased from 20 feet to 60 feet, for an additional cost of $928,000.

Presently, the air emissions for the Oakland station in terms of NOx, SO2, CO, and VOC total 5,060 tons per year. This figure does include the emissions from two on-site boilers and an auxiliary generator. The compressor replacement project will reduce this yearly tonnage by 2,506 tons, including the added 262.9 tons per year that the new Solar turbine compressor unit will add and the total output for the station will total 2,554 tons per year.

Northern Natural Gas expects to select a general contractor in June and begin construction on the project in the third quarter of 2005. Completion on the replacement project is expected in late 2005. The Northern Natural Gas pipeline system is composed of over 16,000 miles of pipeline that extends from the Permian Basin in Texas to the upper Midwest and has a peak capacity of 4.4 billion cubic feet per day.

This is one of 126 Oil & Gas Transmission Industry Projects that Industrialinfo.com is tracking in the U.S. These 126 projects represent more than $5.3 billion in potential project spending scheduled to begin construction in 2005. Click on the image at right to view a breakdown of these projects by state. Click here for more information on Industrialinfo.com's Oil & Gas Transmission Industry Coverage.

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