Natural Gas Pipelines in the Southeast Region
Overview | Transportation to Atlantic & Gulf States | Gulf of Mexico Transportation Corridor | Transportation to the Northern Tier | Regional Pipeline Companies & Links

Twenty-two interstate, and at least eight intrastate, natural gas pipeline companies operate within the Southeast Region (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee). Fifteen of the twenty-one interstate natural gas pipelines originate in the Southwest Region and receive most of their supplies from the Gulf of Mexico or from the States of Texas and/or Louisiana.

Of those fifteen, nine natural gas pipelines (see Table below) actually flow all or a substantial portion, of their deliveries beyond the region, to points within the Northeast or Midwest regions. The remaining natural gas pipelines companies, with the exception of Columbia Gas Transmission Company which is primarily a Northeast Regional pipeline that also supplies a small territory in northern North Carolina, serve the needs of natural gas shippers and customers within the region itself.

Transportation of Natural Gas to Atlantic & Gulf States

By capacity level, the largest natural gas transporters in the region are the Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Company system, Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company, Texas Eastern Transmission Company, and Texas Gas Pipeline Company. The Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Company is the second largest natural gas pipeline in the United States with an overall capability to transport up to 8.2 billion cubic feet (Bcf) per day of natural gas. Although a major portion of its deliveries are directed into the Northeast Region, the Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Company is still the single source of natural gas supplies to many customers in the region, especially in North and South Carolina. This system begins in southeast Texas and extends northeastward through Louisiana, with regional service in Mississippi, Alabama, and the Atlantic coastal States of Georgia, and North and South Carolina.

The largest natural gas pipeline system serving primarily the Southeast is the Southern Natural Gas Company (3.5 Bcf per day). Its system transports natural gas supplies from Southwestern production areas to customers in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina and to a small section of southern Tennessee. With interconnections provided by its subsidiary, South Georgia Natural Gas Company (0.1 Bcf per day), the Southern Natural Gas Company also provides transportation service to parts of northern Florida.

Southern Natural Gas Company is the major supplier of natural gas to the Atlanta Gas Light Company (Georgia) and the South Carolina Gas Company, two of the largest local distribution companies (LDCs) in the region. The Gulf South Pipeline Company also is a major transporter of natural gas in the southern portion of the region, providing transportation service to and within Mississippi, Alabama, and the western panhandle of Florida.

In 2002, the Elba Island, Georgia, LNG import facility reopened after being closed since 1980. To provide transportation services to a key customer of the facility, the SCG Pipeline Company system, now part of the Carolina Gas Transmission Corporation, built a 0.2 Bcf per day, 18-mile natural gas pipeline in 2003 between Elba Island and a new 875 MW natural gas fired power plant located in southeastern South Carolina. This natural gas pipeline, in addition to a restored twin-pipeline system between the Elba Island facility and Southern Natural Gas Company’s system in Georgia, now can deliver up to 0.8 Bcf per day into the Carolina Gas Transmission Corporation system (which was reclassified as an interstate system in 2004).

Gulf of Mexico Natural Gas Transportation Corridor

The 1.1 Bcf per day Gulfstream Natural Gas Pipeline Company system became operational in June 2002. It has the capability to transport natural gas supplies from the Mobile Bay area of Alabama across the Gulf of Mexico to points in west central Florida. Since 2002, the portion of this natural gas pipeline system within the State of Florida has been extended to the east coast of the State as well, although some initial delays in power plant development there slowed its final phases.

The completion of the Gulfstream Natural Gas Pipeline Company system meant that Florida Gas Transmission Pipeline Company was no longer the only source of natural gas available to the State's natural gas shippers and customers. Yet, given the increasing demand for natural gas in Florida, especially from new power generation plants, the Florida Gas Transmission Pipeline Company continues to expand its own system. Between 2000 and 2007, it installed 1.2 Bcf per day of new capacity and will add another 0.06 Bcf per day in 2009 with completion of Phase VII expansion. The entire system extends from southeastern Texas, through southern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and into and throughout Florida.

A significant portion of the region's natural gas pipeline capacity, as well as a primary source of natural gas supplies for the Gulfstream Natural Gas Pipeline Company system, comes from the Gulf of Mexico on three natural gas pipeline systems: the Dauphin Island Gathering System (1.2 Bcf per day), the Destin Pipeline L. P. (1.2 Bcf per day) and the Chandeleur Pipeline Company (0.33 Bcf per day). The latter two systems transport natural gas from Gulf of Mexico production areas to onshore delivery points at Pascagoula, Mississippi, while the Dauphin Island Gathering System directs its flow to Alabama and interconnections with at least six major interstate systems, including the Gulfstream Natural Gas Pipeline Company system.

Natural Gas Transportation Services within the Northern Tier

The northern tier of the Southeast Region is served primarily by regional interstate natural gas pipelines such as the East Tennessee Natural Gas Company and the Enbridge Pipelines (AlaTenn) Inc. (formerly Alabama-Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company) systems, who, in turn, receive their supplies mainly from those interstate natural gas pipelines that traverse the region through Tennessee and Kentucky. These interconnecting natural gas supply pipelines include the ANR Pipeline Company, Columbia Gulf Transmission Company, Midwestern Transmission Company, Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company, Texas Eastern Transmission Company, Texas Gas Transmission Company, and the Trunkline Gas Company systems.

These natural gas pipelines, with the exception of interconnections with regional natural gas pipelines and deliveries to some large industrial facilities and natural gas fired electric power generation facilities within the region, reserve the major share of system deliverability for delivery points in the north and east of the region. Columbia Gulf Transmission Company, for example, delivers more than 90 percent of its transported volumes to its affiliate, Columbia Gas Transmission Company, at the Kentucky/West Virginia border; however, over the past several years, it has also constructed laterals to supply new natural gas fired power plants built along its route.

Of the several intrastate pipelines operating within the region, three are primarily transporters of local natural gas production to local distribution networks or provide interconnections with other natural gas pipelines. For instance, Tengasco Pipeline Company links production from the developing Swan Creek field in Hawkins county, Tennessee with local municipalities, and can extend transportation services to shippers with destinations in Virginia via interconnections with the East Tennessee Natural Gas Company system.

In Mississippi, the Atmos Energy Gas Company (formerly Mississippi Valley Gas Company) not only provides transportation from the growing conventional natural gas fields in the area but also from the developing coal-bed methane production sources in the State as well. Similarly, the Enterprise Intrastate-Alabama Pipeline Company owns/operates about 450 miles of natural gas gathering and transmission pipelines in the coal-bed methane rich Black Warrior Basin in western Alabama. The system gathers supplies for delivery to the Southern Natural Gas Company and Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company systems, as well as to regional local distribution companies and municipalities