Transco

Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Transco | Williams

Williams Update for 8 Key Transco Pipeline Expansion Projects
April 15, 2016April 15, 2016

Last week MDN brought you the fantastic news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had approved Williams’ Transco Pipeline project called the Garden State Expansion–a pipeline project to connect gas that will come through the yet-to-be-built PennEast Pipeline to a yet-to-be-built pipeline in New Jersey called the Southern Reliability Link pipeline (see FERC Approves NJ Pipeline – More Marcellus Gas on the Way!). The Garden State Expansion is just one of eight major expansion projects for Transco–the nation’s largest interstate pipeline system running over 10,200 miles from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast. Yesterday Williams provided an update on all eight expansion projects planned for the mighty Transco–all of them tied directly or indirectly to moving Marcellus/Utica gas…
Read More “Williams Update for 8 Key Transco Pipeline Expansion Projects”
Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Transco | Williams

Dominion Files Application to Move Marcellus Gas to Charleston, SC
March 22, 2016March 22, 2016

According to their own documents and timelines, Dominion Carolina Gas Transmission is behind a few months, but they finally just filed an official application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for a 55-mile pipeline project called the Transco to Charleston Project. As the name implies, it will be a short pipeline to connect the Transco pipeline, which is in the process of reversing flows to bring Marcellus and Utica Shale gas south, to send that gas to the Charleston, SC area. The projected in-service date is November 2017…
Read More “Dominion Files Application to Move Marcellus Gas to Charleston, SC”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Transco | Williams

Dela. Riverkeeper Sues FERC Again – Over Leidy Pipeline Expansion
March 11, 2016March 11, 2016

It’s another week, so it must be time for another lawsuit from THE Delaware Riverkeeper against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Literally. Last week THE Delaware Riverkeeper, aka Maya van Rossum, filed a lawsuit against FERC to try and shut the agency down (see THE Delaware Riverkeeper Sues FERC, Tries to Close it Down). Not trusting their frivolous lawsuit will actually go anywhere, this week Riverkeeper filed another lawsuit (in a string of many)–this one aimed at making FERC reverse a decision to allow an expansion of Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co.’s (Transco’s) Leidy Southeast pipeline. A year ago Riverkeeper filed a lawsuit against the same project in an attempt to stop tree clearing–a tactic that ultimately failed (see Dela. Riverkeeper Loses Bid to Stop Transco Expansion in PA). When will a judge slap Riverkeeper with a fine for its continued practice of filing frivolous lawsuits? Here’s the latest…
Read More “Dela. Riverkeeper Sues FERC Again – Over Leidy Pipeline Expansion”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Spectra Energy | Tennessee Gas Pipeline | Transco

Marcellus/Utica Gas May Head to GA & FL via Alabama Pipeline
February 23, 2016February 23, 2016

Marcellus and Utica Shale gas will get access to an important new market, but not until 2019. Northeast gas will be able to service the very populous southeastern states of Georgia and Florida in about three years’ time with the construction of two new pipelines. The first pipeline is called the Sabal Trail, a 516-mile pipeline from Alabama through Georgia and then through much of Florida. Sabal Trail is a Spectra Energy, NextEra Energy and Duke Energy joint venture with Spectra taking the lead. Two weeks ago, after a 2 1/2 year-long process, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the Sabal Trail project. But how would northeast gas get to Alabama? Good question! That’s where a shorter intrastate (Alabama only) pipeline project comes into play. Yesterday American Midstream Partners announced an “open season” to elicit shippers to sign up for capacity on a 45-mile extension of the Magnolia Intrastate pipeline. If built, the Magnolia expansion would connect Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Natural Gas Pipeline’s 500 Line, which brings gas from north to southwest, with Williams’ Transco pipeline. Transco has a number of branches in the south, including a connection to the Sabal Trail when it gets built (see the map below). The Magnolia expansion, if built, will not be in service until 2019…
Read More “Marcellus/Utica Gas May Head to GA & FL via Alabama Pipeline”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Transco | Williams

Williams’ Transco Pipeline Floats New IOUs to Raise $1 Billion
January 20, 2016January 20, 2016

Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company (Transco), is a pipeline that runs from Pennsylvania to the Texas Gulf Coast. Transco is a wholly owned subsidiary of Williams Partners L.P., and Williams Partners is part of Williams. Williams, including Transco, is about to become part of Energy Transfer Equity (see Williams Board “Unanimously” Committed to Selling to ETE). In a pair of announcements yesterday, Williams revealed that Transco will float new notes (also known as private debt, what we call IOUs). Transco will use the money they raise from these new IOUs to pay off $200 million of existing IOUs coming due in 2016. New debt to replace old debt. That’s what the first announcement revealed. The second announcement said not only do they want to pay off that $200 million coming due this year, they actually want to raise $1 billion (!) and the new IOUs will be due and payable in 2026–ten years from now. So what do they plan to do with the other $800 million not used to pay off old debt?…
Read More “Williams’ Transco Pipeline Floats New IOUs to Raise $1 Billion”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lancaster County | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Transco | Williams

Wrath of Kann: PA Anti’s Disorderly Conduct Conviction Overturned
November 19, 2015November 19, 2015

Kimberly Kann, a resident of Conestoga Township in Lancaster County, PA, decided she would break the rules at a town meeting this past April. The meeting was to discuss so-called home rule and the role it should play in the town with respect to regulating pipelines, like the planned Atlantic Coast Pipeline project from Williams. The ground rules for the meeting were simple: ASK QUESTIONS ONLY. Kann decided she would use it as a public forum to pontificate and rail against pipelines. She wouldn’t ask questions and was repeatedly warned–so when she wouldn’t shut up, they arrested her and threw her out of the meeting (see Wrath of Kann: Lancaster Anti-Driller Arrested/Ejected from Mtg). In July she was found guilty as charged (see Wrath of Kann: Lancaster Anti-Driller Guilty of Disorderly Conduct). Kann should have paid her $325 fine/court costs and ended it–but she kept fighting. It eventually would cost her $3,000 in legal fees, but Kann, like the character played by Ricardo Montalban in Star Trek II, has had the last laugh. In a hollow victory, Kann got her conviction overturned by a Lancaster County judge…
Read More “Wrath of Kann: PA Anti’s Disorderly Conduct Conviction Overturned”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Transco | Virginia | Williams

Williams Completes $300M Pipeline Expansion in Virginia on Time
September 2, 2015April 27, 2016

Click image for larger version

How in the world did this happen?! Williams, which operates the mighty Transco, the largest natural gas pipeline in the United States, has just completed and put into service the Virginia Southside Expansion project. The project, which was put into service to the day they predicted it would be (September 1st) as predicted in their original transmittal letter to the Federal Regulatory Energy Commission back in December 2012, consists of 91 miles of new Transco pipeline laid next to existing pipeline across Virginia (from Pittsylvania County to Brunswick County); 7 miles of new pipeline in Brunswick County; new compressor stations; and other assorted upgrades. The $300 million project will flow 270,000 dekatherms per day (dth/d) of new natgas supplies, enough gas to serve 1.6 million households, but primarily built for the purpose of fueling Dominion’s new 1,300 megawatt electric-power generating plant Brunswick County. The project will also serve increasing local distribution demand in nearby North Carolina. Aside from the fact that anti-fossil fuel nutters have been relatively silent about this project, the interesting thing to MDN is that some of the upgrades come outside of Virginia–in New Jersey and Pennsylvania where portions of the existing Transco mainline were upgraded to be bidirectional, meaning Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale gas will now be able to flow southward…
Read More “Williams Completes $300M Pipeline Expansion in Virginia on Time”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Transco

Holy Potatoes & Finnish Immigrants – Latest Tactic to Stop Pipeline
August 11, 2015August 11, 2015

Ever hear the phrase, “diggin’ deep”? That’s what anti-drillers are doing in New Hampshire with their opposition to a pipeline slated to come through their area in Hillsborough County. As plans for Kinder Morgan’s $6 billion Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline project that will stretch from Pennsylvania through New York into Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and back into Massachusetts near Boston progress, more and more articles appear in newspapers, like the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, attempting to convince people the pipeline is from Satan himself. In fact, according to the latest article, NED may just be from Satan! The Ledger-Transcript claims the pipeline, if it follows the same route as already-built high voltage electric lines, would cut through a hay field that (151 years ago) used to be a potato field and is the site of a miracle of importance to Seventh-Day Adventists…
Read More “Holy Potatoes & Finnish Immigrants – Latest Tactic to Stop Pipeline”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Regulation | Transco

Antis Use Their Own Children as Cheap Props at FERC Hearing in NH
August 4, 2015August 5, 2015

A picture truly is worth a thousand words, as the old saying goes. So let’s show you a picture and see what you think (view it below). It is a picture of young children tricked out in “Stop the Pipeline” yellow shirts and red Stop the Pipeline hats–sitting on the floor playing with toys at a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) hearing in southern New Hampshire last week. Two hearings were held to gather public comments on Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct natural gas pipeline. As they usually do, anti-fossil fuelers turned the hearings into freak shows–using (we’d call it abusing) children as props. We ask: Who would do something like that to their own children? Why would you brazenly use your own child as a cheap prop in a sleazy attempt to gain attention and sympathy for a political viewpoint? How low can you go?…
Read More “Antis Use Their Own Children as Cheap Props at FERC Hearing in NH”
Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Research | Spectra Energy | Transco

Report Says New England Pipelines Not Cost Effective for Maine
July 22, 2015July 22, 2015

A disappointing report was recently delivered to the Maine Public Utility Commission (PUC) that may result in Maine sticking its head in the proverbial sand along its lovely coastline and miss out on cheap, abundant, clean-burning natural gas. In an effort to lower electric power prices, in 2013 the Maine Legislature authorized the PUC to spend up to $75 million a year to buy up to 200 million cubic feet per day of natural gas through an “energy cost reduction contract” (ECRC) that would be paid for by electric ratepayers if it is cost effective. Three companies provided proposals to the PUC: Spectra Energy, Tennessee Gas Pipeline and Portland Natural Gas Transmission System. The PUC hired the Boston-based London Economics International (LEI) to evaluate the proposals and the report is in (full redacted copy below). LEI says none of the three proposals provide enough cost savings to Maine consumers to make them worthwhile…
Read More “Report Says New England Pipelines Not Cost Effective for Maine”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Regulation | Transco

Mass. DPU Rejects Anti Group’s Request to Join Pipeline Hearing
June 24, 2015June 24, 2015

ENOUGH of these anti-pipeline, anti-drilling, dump-all-fossil fuels protesters and their strategies to stop pipelines in New England. That’s essentially what the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) said in refusing to allow the anti-pipeline group Pipeline Awareness Network for the Northeast (PLAN-NE) “full intervenor status” at a series of hearings the DPU will hold today, tomorrow and Friday to consider whether the contracts sought by the local gas distribution companies (local gas utilities) who want to get cheap, abundant and clean-burning Marcellus natural gas from Kinder Morgan’s proposed Northeast Energy Direct pipeline, are in the public interest. The DPU wants to concentrate on the real issues at hand and not be distracted and derailed by the antics of anti-pipeliners, so the DPU turned down PLAN-NE’s request…
Read More “Mass. DPU Rejects Anti Group’s Request to Join Pipeline Hearing”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pipelines | Statewide NY | Transco | Williams

With Williams Pipeline Completed, Fracked Shale Gas Flows to NYC
May 18, 2015May 18, 2015

More Marcellus Shale gas is now flowing to 1.8 million customers in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Long Island thanks to the completion of the Williams Rockaway Delivery Lateral and Northeast Connector projects. The Rockaway project added 3.2 miles of new Transco pipeline off- and on-shore (and related facilities) in New York (see Williams Files with FERC for New Access Point to NYC from Transco Pipeline). The Northeast Connector project added new compressionion equipment at three existing Transco facilities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania (see Williams Happy with FERC Progress on NE Pipeline Expansions). The two projects fit hand-in-glove. The Northeast Connector now delivers 100,000 dekatherms (or 100 million cubic feet, Mmcf) per day to the Rockaway Delivery Lateral. The Rockaway Lateral is delivering 647,000 dekatherms (or 647 Mmcf) per day to NYC residents of abundant, cheap, clean-burning FRACKED (mostly) Marcellus Shale gas…
Read More “With Williams Pipeline Completed, Fracked Shale Gas Flows to NYC”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA | Transco | Williams

It’s Official: Williams Files with FERC for Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline
April 1, 2015April 1, 2015

It’s finally time for the sun to rise on Williams’ Transco Atlantic Sunrise pipeline project. It seems like we’ve covered the story of Atlantic Sunrise forever–a $2.1 billion project consisting of compression and looping of the Transco Leidy Line in Pennsylvania along with a greenfield (brand new) pipeline segment of 178 miles, called the Central Penn Line, connecting the northeastern Marcellus producing region to the Transco mainline near Station 195 in southeastern Pennsylvania (see Atlantic Sunrise Will Pump $1.6B into Economy, Create 8K Jobs). We’ve covered many of the anti-drilling nutball antics in opposing the pipeline (see Convicted Lancaster Protesters Taunt Williams After Court Date). Even though Williams has conducted countless meetings and filed reams of paperwork–it was only yesterday that Williams filed the full, complete, and official application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), asking FERC to approve the project…
Read More “It’s Official: Williams Files with FERC for Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Transco | Williams

Dela. Riverkeeper Loses Bid to Stop Transco Expansion in PA
March 23, 2015March 23, 2015

Question for THE Delaware Riverkeeper: What address should Williams send you the $1,125,000 bill because you blocked their tree cutting for a FERC-approved pipeline extension in Luzerne County? That’s how much it ended up costing Williams after THE Delaware Riverkeeper found a judge in Washington, DC who stopped Williams from clearing trees along the path of the pipeline expansion starting March 11 (see Dela. Riverkeeper Halts Transco Pipeline Upgrade with Lawsuit). Riverkeeper was hoping they could run the clock out because Williams can’t cut those trees from April through October, just in case an endangered Indiana bat decides to roost in a tree. Riverkeeper knows that and wanted to screw with the tree cutting schedule, hoping to buy an additional seven months to mount more legal challenges. The Riverkeeper legal shenanigan cost Williams real money (see Dela. Riverkeeper Leidy Lawsuit Costing Williams $125K per Day). It ended up being 9 days total, until a judge ruled last Thursday that Williams could resume their tree cutting (as we knew they would). Nine days at $125K per day is $1,125,000. Since Riverkeeper lost their case, we think they should pay the bill…
Read More “Dela. Riverkeeper Loses Bid to Stop Transco Expansion in PA”
Electrical Generation | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide MD | Transco | Williams

Williams Gets FERC Approval for 11-Mile Pipeline in NE Maryland
March 20, 2015March 20, 2015

Good news! Williams announced yesterday that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved their Transco pipeline application to expand the Transco system and construct an 11-mile pipeline lateral connecting Transco to an electric power generating facility in Cecil County, Maryland. The “Rock Springs expansion project” will transport 192,000 dekatherms of natural gas per day to Old Dominion Electric Cooperative’s soon-to-be-built Wildcat Point Generation Facility. Wildcat will generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity–enough to power 390,000 homes in the region…
Read More “Williams Gets FERC Approval for 11-Mile Pipeline in NE Maryland”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Transco | Williams

Dela. Riverkeeper Leidy Lawsuit Costing Williams $125K per Day
March 19, 2015March 19, 2015

The clock is ticking. As we told you on Monday, THE Delaware Riverkeeper–Maya van Rossum–is using her bags of money from the William Penn Foundation to try and stop the FERC-approved expansion of the Transco pipeline in northeastern Pennsylvania (see Dela. Riverkeeper Halts Transco Pipeline Upgrade with Lawsuit). The project, known as the Leidy Southeast expansion project, would add new pipeline next to existing pipeline–called looping. Williams (owner of the Transco) can only cut trees down along the path it needs to clear until April 1st. After that, they must wait until Nov. 1st to begin cutting again in order to avoid cutting down trees that may (or may not) become roosting spots for the endangered Indiana bat. van Rossum & company have gotten a sympathetic judge in D.C. to halt the tree cutting while he reviews her latest frivolous lawsuit. She’s trying to run the clock down. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals was supposed to rule earlier this week. They didn’t. Every day they delay is costing Williams $125,000. We sincerely hope Williams sends that bill to van Rossum once the tree cutting begins again…
Read More “Dela. Riverkeeper Leidy Lawsuit Costing Williams $125K per Day”