NUI Corporation Moves into Planning Phase to Complete Florida Natural Gas Pipeline and Associated Projects

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). NUI Corporation (NYSE:NUI) (Bedminster, New Jersey) is planning to complete its Florida East-West Pipeline project. NUI completed phase I of the East-West pipeline in 2001, providing natural gas transportation service from an interconnect with Florida Gas Transmission Company's (FGT) pipeline system beginning in West Palm Beach and terminating in South Bay Florida. The remaining phase of the East-West project will originate from the present terminus in South bay and interconnect with FGT's Pipeline system in Fort Myers, Florida and interconnect with Gulfstream Natural Gas System's pipeline in Marlin County, Florida (PEC 05002415).

NUI is considering three separate scenarios for this planned expansion and estimates range from 120-miles up to 150-miles of new 16" & 24" diameter transmission pipeline supported by one to three compressor stations. Each of the new compressor stations will range from 2,400 to 3,600 horsepower of turbine driven compression to support a flow through rate of up to 300 mmscfd of natural gas. South Bay (PEC 05002413) & Indiantown PEC 05002439) are two of the possible compressor station sites, with the third site as yet remains undisclosed. Completion of the $150-200 million East-West Pipeline project is expected in late 2005 and natural gas transportation services will be offered soon after that.

In conjunction with NUI's East-West Project, NUI has entered into agreements with Plains Resources Incorporated (NYSE:PLX)(Houston Texas) to determine the feasibility of the technical and commercial aspects of developing natural gas storage in the West Felda Field with a working gas capacity of 15 Bcf (PEC 05002436). The West Felda Field is one of five oil-producing properties currently operated by Plains Resources in the Sunniland Trend in Southern Florida. Compression facilities and a 12-mile pipeline interconnect would support this proposed storage facility. Both NUI & Plains resources have retained Mustang Engineering (Houston Texas) for basic engineering and viability studies.