El Paso Pipeline Partners, L.P. (NYSE: EPB) today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Wyoming Interstate Company, Ltd. (WIC), will expand the WIC system upstream of the Opal Hub to accommodate increasing natural gas supplies from the Uinta Basin and Wamsutter production areas. The capital cost of the WIC expansion is estimated at $55 million. WIC has executed long-term firm transportation contracts with four shippers for a total of up to 255 thousand dekatherms per day (MDth/d). The expansion also supports shippers' transportation needs upstream of El Paso Corporation's Ruby Pipeline that will extend from Opal westward and is planned to be in service by March 2011.
This latest expansion is expected to generate approximately $4 million of incremental distributable cash flow in 2011, increasing to approximately $8 million in 2015 pursuant to long-term firm transportation contracts.
"This expansion will provide needed capacity and infrastructure to enhance the WIC system and make additional Rockies production available for transport to consuming regions," said Jim Yardley, president and chief executive officer for the general partner of El Paso Pipeline Partners. "With the addition of the WIC expansion, El Paso Pipeline Partners has a portfolio of organic growth projects that total approximately $250 million of capital that provides unitholders with visible long-term distribution growth."
In Utah, WIC will add a new, 6,200 horsepower compressor station on the existing 24-inch diameter, 124-mile Kanda Lateral. The new compression will increase the Kanda Lateral capacity to 515 MDth/d by providing approximately 100 MDth/d of incremental capacity from the outlets of two existing third-party processing plants in the Uinta Basin. The anticipated in-service date for this portion of the project is November 2010.
In Wyoming, WIC plans to install three miles of 24-inch diameter pipeline and reconfigure one compressor at its Wamsutter station. The pipeline, with the compression modifications, will provide 155 MDth/d natural gas deliveries from the WIC Mainline into Overthrust Pipeline and on to the Opal Hub and Ruby Pipeline. The anticipated in-service date for this portion of the project is March 2011.