The 422-km long pipeline will address a major impediment in the development of the huge Barnett Shale field, namely the lack of infrastructure to get the gas to market. The $450-million from Cleburne to Carthage, near the Louisiana border, will connect the Barnett Shale to the Houston-area petrochemical plants plus large metropolitan commercial and residential users. XTO has now committed up to 1.45 billion cuft/d of gas by the end of the decade into the pipeline. The pipeline also will serve XTO's production in Freestone County and in the Carthage field farther east. XTO became a major producer in the Barnett Shale with a $700-million purchase of Antero Resources of Denver. "We have just completed expanding our Freestone Trend infrastructure, and this new agreement will accommodate the next phase of development growth in XTO's natural gas volumes in Texas," XTO president Keith Hutton said. ETP president Kelcy Warren says the 42-in line from Cleburne to Carthage will be 6in larger in diameter than the 36-in pipelines that connect major natural gas hubs in the Permian Basin and near Houston. The company has taken on the task of being the primary transporter of Barnett Shale gas, and in May, ETP completed a pipeline from Cleburne north through eastern Parker County to a processing plant at Springtown. It serves about 30 Barnett Shale producers, Warren said. "The line already is at capacity, moving about 400 million cuft/d," he said, commenting that the 24-in line probably should have been larger. "With hindsight, I wish we had built it 30in in diameter. The Barnett Shale demand is that strong." ETP also is building a line in partnership with Atmos Energy across the northern rim of the Fort Worth-Dallas metro area to bring Barnett Shale gas to the North Texas residential and commercial markets. Atmos bought TXU Corp's natural-gas delivery system a year ago. "We estimate that we will be the transporter of about half of all Barnett Shale production," Warren said.