Complete: Final Leg of Rockies Express Pipeline
All 1,679 Miles of the Natural Gas Pipeline Are Now in Service
 The eastern portion of the Rockies Express Pipeline has been finished, completing the 1,679-mile pipeline that transports natural gas from Colorado and Wyoming to Ohio.
The final 195 miles of Rockies Express-East went into service on Nov. 12 after the completion of construction for the portion of the pipeline from the Lebanon Hub in Warren County, Ohio, to Clarington in Monroe County, Ohio.
“We are pleased that the final leg of Rockies Express is in service,” says Steve Kean, president of Kinder Morgan’s Natural Gas Pipelines group.
Kinder Morgan owns 50 percent of the Rockies Express Pipeline (REX), which it constructed and operates.
Sempra Pipelines & Storage and ConocoPhillips each own a 25 percent stake in the pipeline.
Now that REX is fully operational, the pipeline is one of the largest natural gas pipelines ever constructed in North America, with a total capacity of 1.8 billion cu ft per day (bcf/d). The pipeline consists of three main portions: REX-Entrega, REX-West and REX-East — the most recently completed portion.
REX-Entrega, which was formerly the Entrega Pipeline, is a 328-mile pipeline that was purchased by Rockies Express Pipeline LLC in February 2006 and is now a part of the overall REX system. REX-Entrega runs from the Meeker Hub in Rio Blanco County, Colo., to the Cheyenne Hub in Weld County, Colo.
REX-West is a 713-mile pipeline from Weld County, Colo., to Audrain County, Mo. Virtually the entire route parallels existing utility corridors, using siting guidelines from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and most of it is in sparsely populated areas. FERC approved construction of REX-West in April 2007. The pipeline went into service in May 2008.
REX-East is a 638-mile pipeline that stretches from Audrain County, Mo., to Monroe County, Ohio. The REX stakeholders filed an application with FERC in April 2007 to approve construction on the eastern portion.
Houston-based Kinder Morgan owns an interest in or operates more than 28,000 miles of pipelines and 170 terminals in the United States. Sempra Pipelines & Storage, based in San Diego, develops, builds and operates natural gas pipelines and storage facilities in Latin America and the United States. ConocoPhillips, also based in Houston, is an international, integrated energy company with about 30,000 employees and $152 billion of assets.
Kinder Morgan’s Next Move
 The same week Kinder Morgan announced the completion the REX pipeline, the company also announced it has entered an agreement with Copano Energy for a 50/50 joint venture to provide gathering, transportation and processing services to natural gas producers in the Eagle Ford Shale resource play in south Texas.
The joint venture will construct, as a first phase, an approximately 22-mile, 24-in. natural gas gathering pipeline that will originate in LaSalle County, Texas, and terminate in Duval County, Texas, with an initial capacity of 350 million cu ft per day. The pipeline is expected to be completed in mid-2010.
Houston-based Copano Energy is a midstream natural gas company with operations in Oklahoma, Texas, Wyoming and Louisiana. |
