Natural Gas Pipelines & Services
Our Natural Gas Pipelines & Services segment includes approximately 9,400 miles of natural gas pipeline systems that provide for the gathering and transportation of natural gas in Texas and Louisiana. We lease natural gas storage facilities located in Texas and Louisiana that are integral components of these systems. This segment’s assets include our Texas Intrastate System, Acadian Gas System and Big Thicket Gathering System.
The Texas Intrastate System gathers and transports natural gas from supply basins in Texas (from both onshore and offshore sources) to local gas distribution companies and electric generation and industrial and municipal consumers as well as to connections with intrastate and interstate pipelines. The Texas Intrastate System is comprised of the 6,560-mile Enterprise Texas pipeline system, the 641-mile Channel pipeline system, the 660-mile Waha gathering system and the 190-mile TPC gathering system.
The 173-mile Sherman Extension pipeline, which is part of our Texas Intrastate System, was completed in February 2009 and is capable of transporting up to 1.2 Bcf/d of natural gas from the prolific Barnett Shale production basin in north Texas. The Sherman Extension provides producers with connections to third-party interstate pipelines having access to markets outside of Texas.
In late 2008, we began design of the 40-mile Trinity River Lateral, which is expected to be completed during the second quarter of 2010. The Trinity River Lateral will be capable of transporting up to 1.0 Bcf/d of natural gas and will provide producers in the Barnett Shale production basin with additional takeaway capacity. We are also constructing a new storage cavern adjacent to the leased Wilson natural gas storage facility that is expected to be completed in 2010. When completed, this new cavern is expected to provide us with an additional 5.0 Bcf of useable natural gas storage capacity.
The Acadian Gas System is an onshore natural gas pipeline that purchases, transports, stores and markets natural gas in Louisiana. The Acadian Gas System links natural gas supplies from onshore and offshore Gulf of Mexico developments (including offshore pipelines, continental shelf and deepwater production) with local gas distribution companies, electric generation plants and industrial customers, including those in the Baton Rouge-New Orleans-Mississippi River corridor. The system is comprised of the 576-mile Cypress pipeline, the 438-mile Acadian pipeline and the 27-mile Evangeline pipeline.
In October 2009, we and Enterprise announced plans to build the Haynesville Extension. As currently designed, our Haynesville Extension pipeline will have the capacity to transport up to 2.1 Bcf/d of natural gas from the Haynesville region through a 249-mile pipeline that will connect with our existing Acadian Gas System. This pipeline is expected to be placed into service during the third quarter of 2011.
The following assets are included in our Natural Gas Pipelines & Services segment:
| Asset | Capacity |
Miles | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Natural gas pipelines: | (MMcf/d) | ||
| Texas Intrastate System | 6,640 | 8,051 | Texas |
| Acadian Gas System | 1,149 | 1,041 | Louisiana |
| Big Thicket Gathering System (1) | 60 | 262 | Texas |
| Canales Gathering System | 75 | 32 | Texas |
| Total Miles | 9,386 | ||
| Natural gas storage facilities: | (Bcf) | ||
| Wilson | 6.8 | Texas | |
| Acadian | 1.3 | Louisiana | |
| Total gross capacity | 8.1 |
(1) Thicket Gathering System is an integral part of our NGL marketing activities, the results of operations of which are accounted for under our NGL Pipelines & Services business segment.