Rockies Express Pipeline LLC announced on January 14 that interim service with capacity of about 1.4 billion cubic feet (Bcf) per day began Saturday, January 12, on approximately 500 miles of Rockies Express-West (REX-West) from the Cheyenne Hub in Weld County, Colo., to the ANR delivery point in Brown County, Kan. This section also includes delivery points to Kinder Morgan Interstate Gas Transmission, Northern Natural Gas Company and Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America. The remaining 213-mile section of REX-West will continue eastward to Audrain County, Mo., and is expected to be in service in early February at which time capacity will increase to about 1.5 Bcf per day.
"We are delighted the majority of REX-West is in service and look forward to REX-West being fully operational in early February," said Scott Parker, president of Kinder Morgan's natural gas pipelines.
REX-West is a 713 mile, 42-inch diameter pipeline with deliveries available on the pipeline system to interconnects with Kinder Morgan Interstate Gas Transmission, Northern Natural Gas Company, Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America, ANR and Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Company.
Rockies Express Pipeline LLC is a joint venture of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P., Sempra Pipelines and Storage, a unit of Sempra Energy, and ConocoPhillips and is one of the largest natural gas pipelines to be constructed in North America. When completed, after receipt of all necessary approvals, the 1,678-mile pipeline will have a capacity of approximately 1.8 Bcf per day. Binding firm commitments from creditworthy shippers have been secured for all of the capacity on the pipeline. KMP is overseeing construction of the project and will operate the pipeline.
Subject to receipt of regulatory approvals, it is anticipated that interim service on REX-East will begin as early as December 30, 2008, and be fully operational by June 2009. The first 328-mile segment of the Rockies Express project, which runs from the Meeker Hub in Rio Blanco County, Colo., to the Wamsutter Hub in Sweetwater County, Wyo., to the Cheyenne Hub is in service and has a current capacity of 500,000 dekatherms per day.
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners is a leading pipeline transportation and energy storage company in North America. KMP owns an interest in or operates more than 24,000 miles of pipelines and 150 terminals. Its pipelines transport natural gas, gasoline, crude oil, CO2 and other products, and its terminals store petroleum products and chemicals and handle bulk materials like coal and petroleum coke. KMP is also the leading provider of CO2 for enhanced oil recovery projects in North America. One of the largest publicly traded pipeline limited partnerships in America, KMP has an enterprise value of approximately $20 billion. The general partner of KMP is owned by Knight Inc. (formerly Kinder Morgan, Inc.), a private company.
Sempra Pipelines & Storage acquires, builds and operates natural gas pipelines and storage facilities in Mexico and the United States. Sempra Energy, based in San Diego, is a Fortune 500 energy-services holding company with 2006 revenues of nearly $12 billion. The Sempra Energy companies' 14,000 employees serve more than 29 million consumers worldwide.
ConocoPhillips is an integrated petroleum company with interests around the world. Headquartered in Houston, the company had approximately 32,500 employees, $173 billion of assets and $180 billion of revenues as of September 30, 2007. For more information, go to http://www.conocophillips.com/.