The Alliance Pipeline and Questar Overthrust Pipeline Company (Questar) have announced that they have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to develop the Rockies Alliance Pipeline (RAP), a jointly owned interstate natural gas pipeline from Wamsutter, Wyo., to the Minnesota U.S./Canadian border (Emerson trading hub).
The proposed 42-inch pipeline will traverse approximately 800 miles northeasterly through Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota; connecting the fastest-growing natural gas producing region in North America — the Rockies — with robust natural gas markets in the U.S. Midwest and central Canada.
RAP is proposing to interconnect with downstream pipelines (Alliance Pipeline, Northern Border, Great Lakes Transmission and TransCanada Pipeline) to provide direct access to the Chicago Hub, Michigan and Dawn storage, and upper Midwest and Northeastern markets.
RAP provides maximum receipt flexibility to access the growing gas supplies in the Rocky Mountain Region originating in the Wamsutter hub (Questar, WIC, CIG and REX) as well as the Powder River Basin area (Dead Horse and Gillette, Wyo., area). RAP also provides multiple delivery options and will offer zonal rates with the various interstate pipelines.
A binding open season is scheduled to commence May 1, 2008. Alliance and Questar will work with prospective shippers to determine the most efficient size, route and timing of in-service date for the RAP facilities and are flexible in the project design to meet shippers' needs in the most effective way.
"Alliance has extensive expertise in constructing and operating transmission systems. We are pleased to be partnering with Questar to develop a system to serve the growing U.S. markets in the Midwest and Northeast," says Murray Birch, Alliance president and CEO.
"Rockies natural gas is an attractive alternative to Canadian gas and imported LNG", said Allan Bradley, Questar Pipeline president and CEO. "Alliance and Questar Pipeline are teaming up to offer our customers seamless natural gas transportation from multiple Rockies basins to growing natural gas markets in the East. This is a project whose time has come."
Subject to obtaining shipper commitment for this system and regulatory approvals, the pipeline is expected to be placed into service as early as third quarter 2011.
