U.S. infrastructure giant to move forward on 1.7 bln USD gas pipeline

HOUSTON, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. pipeline giant Kinder Morgan said Thursday that it is ready to move forward with its 1.7-billion-U.S.-dollar gas pipeline in the U.S. state of Texas.

The project, expected to be operated in October 2019, is meant to capitalize off of the ongoing shale boom in West Texas' Permian Basin. While companies are primarily drilling for oil, there is plenty of associated natural gas produced from the shale rock.

The Houston-based company said the project aims to ship the gas to industrial and port hubs near Houston and Corpus Christi, a city on the Gulf of Mexico, where the gas can be shipped to power plants for electricity generation, to liquefied natural gas export terminals, or to Mexico, which is increasingly importing American gas for its power generation.

When completed, the pipeline network will transport 1.92 billion cubic feet (54 million cubic meters) of gas a day.

The company said the 800-km project is 50 percent owned by Kinder Morgan with the other 25 percent slices of the pie belonging to Houston's Targa Resources and DCP Midstream, which is a joint venture between Houston's Phillips 66 and Calgary-based Enbridge. Construction is expected to start in the first quarter of 2018.

The pipeline is one of over 15 proposed projects to expand or construct pipelines that will traverse Texas from the Permian Basin to Houston, Corpus Christi and Beaumont. Most of the pipelines are for crude oil or natural gas liquids. Enditem