The Fayetteville Express Pipeline (FEP) will deliver gas from the Fayetteville Shale Region in Arkansas to consumers in the northeast, southeast and Midwest USA.
The $US1.125 billion project will transport natural gas from Conway County, Arkansas, to an interconnect with Trunkline Gas Company in Panola County, Mississippi. Once complete, the 298 km pipeline will have an initial capacity of 2 Bcf/d of gas.
The pipeline will be owned by Fayetteville Express Pipeline LLC, a joint venture between Kinder Morgan Energy Partners and Energy Transfer Partners.
The FEP is being constructed from 42 inch X70 steel pipe, and features one compressor station near Russell, Arkansas. It will have 15 receipt meters in Arkansas, and interconnect with the Natural Gas Pipeline (NGPL), the ANR Pipeline and the Texas Gas Pipeline, in addition to the Trunkline Gas Pipeline.
FEP LLC has entered into fixed lump-sum contracts for the construction phase of the project. Sheehan Pipeline Construction Company and Willbros Construction were contracted for the mainline spreads, while EMS USA will install the compressor station. Encon and Midway Oilfield Constructors have received contracts to install the meters.
Pipeline construction is expected to generate over 2,000 jobs during the peak construction period in 2010. Construction began in early March, and first gas is expected in late 2010, with interim service to the NGPL and the Trunkline Pipeline from October.
The main construction challenge is anticipated to be the Little Red River and Mississippi River crossings. The Little Red River will be negotiated with an open cut crossing, while the Mississippi River will be traversed via horizontal directional drilling (HDD).
Key environmental considerations include the installation and maintenance of controls to minimise erosion and sedimentation into waterways, while a number of forested wetlands and cypress swamps are being crossed by HDD to prevent any adverse environmental impacts. In addition, extensive cultural resource surveys have been conducted, along with archaeological monitoring during earthmoving activities.
To ensure high-quality stakeholder liaison, FEP held Open Houses, attended Federal Energy Regulatory Commission meetings, and met with elected officials, agencies, decision makers and other local groups to inform them about the project.
According to an FEP representative “The project remains on schedule and our teams have continued to stay in close contact with all stakeholders to ensure that they are aware of project status and updates.”
FEP said that it is confident that the construction process will avoid any unforeseen delays, allowing the project to be completed on schedule later this year.
