Making
History
Gulf Trace Project to
Serve New Export Facility
“There’s a lot of
gas that needs
to come this
direction.”
Scott Owen
Senior Project Manager
Engineering & Construction
Mark 2016 as an historic
year — the year the U.S.
became an exporter
of natural gas.
Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass Liquefaction
and Export Terminal in Cameron Parish,
Louisiana recently completed its first
liquefied natural gas (LNG) delivery to an
international market.
Now, Williams Partners is expanding its
delivery capacity to serve this export facility.
Approved last year by the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission, the Gulf Trace project
includes the installation of a seven mile, 36inch concrete-coated pipe delivering gas to the
Sabine Pass Liquefaction Facility meter station.
“The Gulf Trace project is among several
fully contracted interstate pipeline projects
Williams Partners is executing to connect
North America’s abundant natural gas supplies
to demand growth from the local distribution,
electric power generation, industrial and LNG
export businesses,” says Rory Miller, senior
vice president, Atlantic-Gulf operating area.
4
As part of the project, Williams Partners also is
building a new greenfield compressor station;
making horsepower additions to the existing
Transco Station 44; and performing mainline
modifications at three other existing Transco
Stations (45, 50 and 60) to allow for the
bi-directional flow of gas.
“This project (Gulf Trace) is to deliver (natural
gas) to trains three and four of Cheniere which
are expected to be on line in the first quarter of
2017,” says Scott Owen, senior project manager,
Engineering & Construction for Williams.
“And, we are targeting the first part of 2017
to be in-service to meet their needs.”
Pushing Through
In order to deliver the pipeline construction
for this project, our team is using the SWAMP
technique to push the pipe through the water
filled swamp that is the pipeline right of way
along the Gulf Coast.
In this operation, each 40,000-pound pipe joint
goes on the push rack through an assembly
line of welding stations and an x-ray machine
before being guided to its right-of-way
destination with the help of floats.
CONNECT: A PUBLICATION FOR WILLIAMS CUSTOMERS | VOL. 4, ISSUE 1, 2016