Williams gets FERC approval for second large LNG pipeline serving the Texas coast

The final nod of approval from the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has come for Williams to start full service on its Gulf Connector Expansion Project to feed two LNG export terminals on the Texas coast.

The two terminals are Cheniere Energy’s Corpus Christi operation on the coast and Freeport LNG. The Connector is the second Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line project serving the Gulf Coast LNG terminals. It also came after the company’s 2017 start of the 1.2 Bcf/d Gulf Trace Project feeding Cheniere’s Sabine Pass Liquefaction Project.

“Since 2017, Williams has now added more than 2 Bcf of export capacity via Transco to directly serve global natural gas markets,” Williams spokesman Christopher Stockton in an email. “Projects like Gulf Connector leverage existing Transco gas pipeline infrastructure, which already has a significant presence along the Gulf Coast.”

The Gulf Connector Expansion Project provides incremental firm transportation capacity from St. Helena Parish, Louisiana, to several interconnections, including with Cheniere Corpus Christi Pipeline in San Patricio County, Texas. It consists of three new compressor stations, a new pipeline interconnect and modifications to two compressor stations in southeast Texas.

Partial in-service, approved on November 29, enabled up to 290 MMcf/d of service on an interim basis along the full path of the project. Facilities entering service December 1 included Compressor Station 40 in Hardin County, Texas; Compressor Station 30 in Wharton County, Texas; Compressor Station 23 in Victoria County, Texas; and the Corpus Christi Interconnect in San Patricio County, Texas.

On December 13, Transco asked FERC for permission to start remaining facilities, including Compressor Station 17 and Compressor Station 23, and to commence full service of up to 475,000 Dt/day on January 1, 2019. The commission granted that permission January 2.

The expansion will provide firm gas transportation service to Cheniere Energy’s Corpus Christi Liquefaction, developer of the Corpus Christi LNG export terminal, as well as to Japan ‘s Osaka Gas Trading and Export, a customer of the Freeport LNG export terminal.

Freeport LNG is targeting the third quarter of 2019 for commercial startup of Train 1, a Q1 2020 start for Train 2, Q2 2020 start for Train 3 and a 2023 start for Train 4.

Cheniere is ramping up the first train from its Corpus Christi LNG plant, which has a nameplate capacity of 4.5 million mt/year, and exported its first cargo in December.