The US Midwest Natural Gas Pipeline System is made up of Wisconsin Gas Pipeline, Ohio Gas Pipeline, Minnesota Gas Pipeline, Michigan Gas Pipeline, Indiana Gas Pipeline and Illinois Gas Pipeline. There are 26 pipeline companies (both intrastate and interstate) that supply natural gas to Midwest Natural Gas Pipeline. The Southwest produces most of the natural gas pipeline supplies sent to the Midwest Natural Gas Pipeline. However, Canadian gas pipelines supply an estimated one-fourth of the pipeline capacity for natural gas for the Midwest Region as well. On the other hand, regional production of natural gas (dominated by Michigan and Ohio) contributes only slightly more than 8% of natural gas used in the Midwest.
Domestic Delivery of Natural Gas Pipeline Supplies
The panhandles of Oklahoma Gas Pipeline and west Texas Gas Pipeline, plus eastern Texas Gas Pipeline, Louisiana Gas Pipeline and Kansas Gas Pipeline have been known as the main producers of natural gas that ends up in the Midwest Natural Gas Pipeline for some time now. The Midwest relies on the interstate system network to accommodate Southwest Region deliveries that reach up to 61% of its 28-Bcf-daily peak-day capacity (or an estimated 17 billion Bcf.) The interstate pipelines which do this are some of the biggest in the entire US.
Two such interstate pipeline systems named the Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America (or NGPLA) and the ANR Pipeline Company (or ANR) use corridors for supplying natural gas sourced from Louisiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas producers. Around 12% of the overall throughput capacity of the Midwest (equivalent to 3.4 Bcf daily) is provided by NGPLA, whose services ends in Chicago, Illinois. ANR has a daily transport capacity of 2.0 Bcf for the Midwest Region. ANR can also serve almost every one of the Midwest States (exclusive of Minnesota),
ending in Indiana and Michigan.
The three systems known independently as Centerpoint Mississippi River Transmission
Company, Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Company, and Northern Natural Gas Company deliver gas into the Midwest Region originating from Kansas/Oklahoma/Texas producers. Another four systems (each known as Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company, Texas Eastern Pipeline Company, Trunkline Gas Company, and Texas Gas Transmission Company respectively) originate in east Texas and Louisiana then continue northwards into the Midwest Region. The problem is though is that the systems run by the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company and the Texas Eastern Pipeline
Company are meant for Northeast markets consumption, and little or none are allocated for the Midwest markets.
The regional network has two new systems which were finished back in 2002. These are namely the Guardian Pipeline Company (with daily capacity of 0.8 Bcf) and the Horizon Pipeline Company (whose daily capacity is 0.4 Bcf.) Each taps into the Chicago junction to get their natural gas from interstate pipeline system supplies, so they can supply natural gas to the growing northern Illinois Gas Pipeline markets, and the larger metropolitan area of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Shippers who need a route in between the pipelines supplying natural gas to western Indiana, so they can link up to the central Ohio interconnections, can benefit from the Crossroads Pipeline Company transportation services which allows shippers to connect to the system run byColumbia Gas Transmission Company.
Most of the time, LDCs (local distribution companies) and natural gas customers within Indiana use the interstate gas pipelines that cross over Indiana. Texas Gas Pipeline Transmission Company maintains the only system that terminates in the Indiana market, which uses up around 30% of overall system capacity.
The dominant systems in the eastern half of the Midwest Natural Gas Pipeline (including Ohio) are run by interstate companies Columbia Gas Pipeline Transmission Company and the Dominion Transmission Company. Each of these two systems can supply significant service to the LDCs, Dominion and NiSource. Plus, Columbia Gas Pipeline Transmission Company can tap into 15 underground storage sites for natural gas based in Ohio. These two systems may be considered extensions of older pipeline operations which originated in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Actually, a percentage of the Appalachian production of natural gas relies on these systems for delivery to the Ohio market.
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Energy Information Administration -Energy Information Administration-3/4/2008
