Columbia Gas Files For Buckeye Xpress
Columbia Gas Transmission filed an application March 26 with the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Ferc) for its $709mn Buckeye XPress Project in West Virginia. Ferc advised of the application on April 9.
The Buckeye XPress Project involves abandoning about 98 km of 20- and 24-inch pipe and replacing it with about 106 km of 36-inch pipe to increase safety and reliability. The larger pipe will also add an incremental 275mn ft3/day of firm transportation service to meet anticipated demand growth from Appalachian shale gas fields to delivery points in Kentucky and West Virginia.
The pipe being replaced was originally installed in 1948 and contains several pipe sections that were bent to conform to the topography of the route. Such installation methods are now banned by the US Department of Transportation as they increase the chance of pipe failure.