REX, Zone 3 (Ohio To Missouri) Has Been Completed; At/Near Full Capacity -- January 13, 2017

Back on , I posted:

• RBN Energy: again, RBN Energy does a superb job on their energy updates. This time is an update on the REX, Zone 3 east-to-west expansion.

Today, EIA posts its update of Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) Zone 3: REX Zone 3 capacity expansion enters full service, increasing Northeast takeaway capacity.

On January 5, Tallgrass Energy and Rockies Express Pipeline LLC (REX) announced the completion of the Zone Three Capacity Enhancement Project, providing an additional 800 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of east-to-west capacity out of Ohio and into Midwestern markets.

The recently completed capacity expansion project has increased REX's Zone 3 east-to-west capacity to 2.6 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) by adding three additional compressor stations and upgrading two others. The project received approval from FERC in March of 2015; it is estimated to have cost $532 million. Capacity on the east-to-west expansion is currently fully subscribed under long-term contracts. In its first full week of service, east-to-west flows have been close to full capacity, averaging 2.6 Bcf/d at the Chandlersville compressor station in central Ohio (PointLogic Energy).

Zone 3 has 20 different pipeline interconnects and delivery points, ....

In addition to providing access to Midwestern markets, both pipelines will also connect Appalachian natural gas to the Gulf Coast, which is evolving into a demand center as liquefied natural gas export and petrochemical facilities come online.

Originally a west-to-east pipeline completed in late 2009, only four years later (2013) a project to reverse the flow was initiated:

Completed in November 2009, the 1.8 Bcf/d REX pipeline extended 1,713 miles and was built to move natural gas from Colorado and Wyoming to eastern Ohio. The emergence of shale gas production in the Marcellus and Utica basins, however, transformed the Northeast into a major supply region for natural gas. As a result, Tallgrass initiated a project to provide east-to-west reversal on REX's Zone 3 in August 2013, which came into service in August 2015. The project provided full bidirectional flow of 1.8 Bcf/d between Clarington, Ohio, and Mexico, Missouri.

RNB Energy has had many, many posts and updates on the REX pipeline.