Work continues at various locations on a section of the
Northeast Storage Project, a new natural gas project that includes
a pipeline which stretches 23.67 miles from just east of Sharon
Center in Potter County across the New York State border to the
Quinlan Compressor Station near Rock City Hill south of Olean.
Several weeks ago, employees of Sheehan Pipeline Construction
prepared a site along the Duffytown Road in Eldred Township for a
horizontal directional drill which was used to bore under the
Allegheny River, which runs to the west of the road, also known as
Route TR 398.
That drilling is now finished, and the pipe is in place.
Drilling will also go under the township road and under the Norfolk
Southern railroad tracks.
Next door in Potter County, where the pipeline is to be
installed along Plank Road, near Shinglehouse, boring under Route
44 has been completed, according to Kevin O’Donnell, supervisor of
construction projects for
Dominion Transmissions, the Richmond, Va.-based company that
will own the pipeline.
Boring has begun under Bell Run Road. A horizontal directional
drill is to be used to bore under Oswayo Creek.
Meanwhile at Quinlan, workers have started drilling the first of
four wells, all of which are to go to an approximate depth of 5,000
feet in order to reach the geological formation where the natural
gas is to be stored. “The underground storage area is a porous rock
formation with a natural boundary so the gas cannot leak out,”
O’Donnell said.
According to the company site, “natural gas is usually stored in
natural geological reservoirs such as depleted oil or gas fields or
water-bearing sands sealed on top by an impermeable cap rock.” That
practice began in the 1930s and, indeed, some of those early
storage sites are still being used today, such as those in Tioga
and Sharon.
The whole length of the 20-inch pipeline is expected to be
completely installed by Dec. 15. It connects to an existing 12-inch
line near Sharon Center and then terminates at the Quinlan
Compressor Station.
The project has seven miles of new line in Potter County
(Shinglehouse Borough and Sharon and Oswayo townships) and 14.5
miles in Ceres and Eldred townships McKean County, with one mile of
eight-inch connector lines in Pennsylvania.
O’Donnell said, “Two huge 2,800-horsepower compressors have been
moved on site, and they were unloaded with a 450-ton crane.” That
station, located near the Ho-Sta-Geh Restaurant, is expected to be
in service by April 1.
A dehydrator system, now being manufactured, will be part of the
compressor system, and will remove water from the gas so it does
not freeze in the winter. The Quinlan Well Field and Gas Storage
Pool in New York consists of four new wells, one existing well, one
observation well and almost a mile of pipeline. The Quinlan Reef
gas field lies in New York and Pennsylvania.
“Typically,” O’Donnell said, “the compressor station is built
close to the storage wells since it reduces the friction in the
line. It is also economical.”
Natural gas from various sources will pass through the pipeline;
Dominion plans to store it at Quinlan for future use.
O’Donnell explained that this will be a bi-directional line,
meaning that natural gas can flow in both directions. He said, “In
warmer weather, gas is to be compressed and stored underground.
Then, during the colder months, the gas can be taken from the
underground storage and put into the compressor station and sent
out the line for distribution in the Northeast.”
Planning for this portion of the Northeast Storage Project began
almost two years ago. According to media reports, the cost is
expected to be about $64.8 million for the addition of 9.4 billion
cubic feet of natural gas storage, involving seven buildings.
Dominion Transmission Inc., headquartered in Clarksburg, Va., is
the interstate gas transmission subsidiary of Dominion. According
to the company Web site, DTI “operates the world’s largest
underground natural gas storage storage system. The company has
links to other major pipelines and to markets in the Midwest,
Mid-Atlantic and Northeast region is of the United States … (it)
maintains 10,000 miles of pipeline in six states – Ohio, West
Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and Virginia.”
Once the gas leaves the Dominion lines, it is no longer on that
company’s metering and regulating system and branches out to
consumers of natural gas, such as power plants and residential
customers.
The local project is just part of Dominion’s “Cove Point
Expansion Project” involving work in Maryland, Virginia,
Pennsylvania and New York, as approved by the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission.
