REX Opens Additional Flow To Midwestern Markets

The Midwestern markets are now the recipients of an additional 800 MMcfd (22.6 X 10⁶ m³/d) of natural gas thanks to the completion of an enhancement project to the Rockies Express Pipeline (REX), according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The US$532 million project, known as the Zone Three Capacity Enhancement Project, increased the REX’s Zone 3 east-to-west capacity to 2.6 Bcfd (73.6 X 10⁶ m³/d) by adding three additional compressor stations and upgrading two others. In its first full week of service, the EIA reported that east-to-west flows were close to full capacity, averaging 2.6 Bcfd (73.6 X 10⁶ m³/d) at the Chandlersville compressor station in central Ohio.

REX is an interstate pipeline that runs 1700 miles (2736 km) from northwestern Colorado and southwestern Wyoming to eastern Ohio. The pipeline came into service in 2009 with a 1.8 Bcfd (50.9 X 10⁶ m³/d) capacity, but the shale gas production boom transformed the Northeast into a major natural gas supplier.

Tallgrass Energy, a joint owner of the pipeline with Sempra U.S. Gas & Power and Phillips 66, initiated a project in August 2013 to provide east-to-west reversal on REX’s Zone 3, which became operational two years later. The enhancement project received Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approval in March 2015. Tallgrass and REX announced the completion of the enhancement project on Jan. 5.