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Spectra Energy begins to address questions regarding its OPEN pipeline
YOUNGSTOWN
Houston-based Spectra Energy invited hundreds of landowners from five counties to hear about a 70-mile dry-gas transmission pipeline it tentatively plans to construct in 2015.
The pipeline will deliver processed natural gas from the Kensington facility under construction in Columbiana County to customers throughout Ohio, and it will assist in delivering the product to markets on the East Coast and the Gulf Coast.
The company has entered the pre-filing process with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which requires it to host an informational open house.
The pipeline will wend its way through Belmont, Jefferson, Columbiana and Monroe counties, as well as a very small portion of Carroll County, according to company officials.
Environmentalists, engineers, regulatory officials and several other experts were invited to the meeting, which took place at the United Local Middle School in Hanoverton.
The pipeline will require one compressor station, which pressurizes the gas and helps move it through the line, said a company official.
So far, Spectra has identified eight possible locations for the station. It consists of a turbine that powers the compressor and emissions-control equipment. The station will be roughly the size of a barn.
One spot in South Jefferson County, near Mount Pleasant is of particular interest to Spectra, but residents there have raised concerns about its location with both FERC and the company itself.
Spectra also has announced a joint venture with two other companies to construct a 250-mile interstate transmission pipeline that will run into Canada. That project also is in its early stages.
Construction on the pipeline is expected to begin in the summer of 2015, and its estimated completion date is November 2015. After the prefiling process is complete, it must then file an application for pipeline certification with regulators.
The Kensington processing facility is operating at partial capacity, as its first phase recently was completed.