Gas pipeline plan would add 16 miles in the Permian Basin

A federal energy notice puts Northern Natural Gas Company’s Permian Basin Expansion Project in front of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC. The plan would lay 15.1 miles of 24-inch pipe and 1.1 miles of 16-inch pipe across Lea County, New Mexico, and Gaines County, Texas, while adding a compressor station, interconnections and a new delivery point at Southwestern Public Service Company’s Gaines County Generating Station.

Northern says the project is meant to move about 361,600 dekatherms, a gas-energy measure, per day to the new generation facility. The company puts the cost at $104,996,682.

What the buildout includes

The filing reaches beyond the new pipe itself. Northern also wants a new ISO-rated 7,700-horsepower Solar Turus 60 gas turbine compressor station in Lea County, plus an interconnect with Transwestern Pipeline Company inside the existing Phillip 66 Linam Ranch Plant.

It also calls for a receiver within Northern’s existing launcher facility, a replacement recycle valve at its Plains Compressor Station and a delivery point for the Gaines County Generating Station.

Why it matters nearby

For the people and businesses around the route, this is less about paperwork than about another layer of gas infrastructure being threaded into the Permian Basin. Projects like this shape where fuel can move, how reliably it can get there and what kinds of power loads the system can serve.

The notice also starts the public window for anyone who wants to intervene in the case, even though the filing itself is the main event for readers trying to understand what is being built and where.