Kinder Morgan to expand El Paso gas pipeline capacity

Kinder Morgan's El Paso Natural Gas (EPNG) has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for authorization to expand capacity on a pipeline segment in northwest Texas.

EPNG's Permian North Expansion project aims to double existing shipping capacity on a segment of pipeline in Edgar County, Texas, to meet customer bids from a previous open season. The project affords 176mn cf/d (5mn m³/d) of additional capacity on the 20-inch pipeline segment, Kinder Morgan said.

EPNG filed the authorization request with FERC last week to install valves, actuators, station yard piping and other auxiliary equipment at compressor stations in the Texas panhandle, as well as in the western part of the state.

The open season that spurred the expansion project took place between December 2017 and January 2018. The shippers awarded the upped capacity include United Energy Trading, Macquarie Energy, EOG Resources, ETC Marketing, Shell Energy North America and Andeavor, according to the FERC filing.

EPNG's overall system transports gas from the San Juan, Permian and Anadarko basins to California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and northern Mexico.

EPNG is one of the pipeline operators striving to increase shipping capacity in order to alleviate increasing amounts of supply in the Permian basin from associated gas production – gas produced as a by-product of crude production.

The Permian produced 10.42 Bcf/d in June, according to the latest US Energy Information Administration data, a 26pc increase over June 2017. The EIA projects gas production in the Permian will reach 10.66 Bcf/d in July and 10.89 Bcf/d in August.