February 2016, Vol. 243, No. 2
Projects
Williams Partners Expanding Transco System for LNG Markets
Williams Partners has executed long-term contracts with two shippers for Gulf Connector, a 475,000 dekatherm per day expansion of the Transco pipeline system to connect U.S. natural gas supplies with global LNG markets.
Gulf Connector will deliver gas for the Cheniere Energy Corpus Christi liquefaction project and a shipper in Freeport LNG Development’s liquefaction project near Freeport, TX. Both the Corpus Christi and Freeport liquefaction facilities are under construction.
The Gulf Connector project involves adding compression and making the natural gas flow bidirectional on a portion of the Transco system between Louisiana and south Texas, pending appropriate regulatory approvals. It’s designed to provide incremental firm transportation from Transco’s Station 65 in St. Helena Parish, LA, to mainline interconnects with proposed header pipelines in Wharton Countyand San Patricio County, TX.
“Gulf Connector is another great example of Williams Partners leveraging our existing infrastructure to serve new and growing market opportunities for North America’s natural gas,” said Rory Miller, senior vice president of Williams Partners’ Atlantic-Gulf operating area.
As previously announced, Williams Partners is also building the Gulf Trace Project to serve Cheniere’s Sabine Pass Liquefaction project in Cameron Parish, LA, the first large-scale LNG export facility in operation in the continental United States. The first shipment of LNG from that facility is expected in late February or March, and the Gulf Trace Project is expected to be completed in early 2017.
Cheniere’s Corpus Christi export terminal is proposed to have up to five liquefaction trains, two of which are under construction, with expected aggregate nominal production capacity of up to 22.5 mtpa of LNG. Train 1 and 2 are expected to become operational in late 2018 and mid-2019, respectively.
The Freeport LNG export terminal will have three liquefaction trains with expected aggregate export capacity of 15.3 mtpa. The Freeport export facility is also planned to commence operations in phases between September 2018 and August 2019.
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