Transco expansion moves forward

(Map: Transco.)

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has given Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line company (Transco) a generally favorable environmental impact statement for a proposed expansion and overhaul of its gas pipeline network in the U.S. Northeast.

In March 2021, Transco asked the FERC for authorization to expand its natural gas transmission system in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland and to replace and upgrade some of its compression stations in the region. The work would allow it to provide an additional 829 MMcf/d of natural gas to multiple delivery points along its existing system and give customers in the Marcellus and Utica shale better access to markets in the northeast.

Depending on regulatory approval, Transco plans to begin construction in 2Q23 and to place the facilities into service in 4Q24.

The regional energy access project, as it is called, includes the addition of 30 and 42-inch pipelines and significant modifications to five compressor stations in the region.

Transco plans to install more than 22 miles of 30-inch-diameter pipeline loop in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, nearly 14 miles of 42-inch-diameter pipeline loop in Monroe County, Pennsylvania and a new electric-motor driven Compressor Station with 9000 hp in Gloucester County, New Jersey.

Transco also wants to install two gas driven turbine compressor units with 31,800 hp in Somerset County, New Jersey to replace about 16000 hp from eight existing internal combustion driven compressor units.

Transco plans to install a gas turbine compressor with 65,700 hp and to modify three existing compressors at a compressor station in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania that would replace about 17,000 hp from five existing gas-fired reciprocating engine-driven compressors.

The company plans to rewheel two existing electric motor-driven compressor units at a compressor station in York County, Pennsylvania, a modification that would increase capacity by 5000 hp and to abandon two existing gas-fired reciprocating engine driven compressors with a total capacity of 8000 hp.

Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company, Transco, a division of Williams, is a network of 10,000 miles of natural gas pipelines stretching from South Texas to New York City. The network transports about 15 percent of the natural gas consumed in the U.S., the company said.