HOUSTON, Dec. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Spectra Energy
Corp's (NYSE: SE) Texas Eastern Transmission, LP (Texas Eastern),
American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) and Chesapeake Energy
Marketing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy
Corporation (NYSE: CHK), today announced their intention to advance
the development of the Ohio Pipeline Energy Network (OPEN) project,
a proposed expansion of the Texas Eastern pipeline system that will
connect Ohio's Utica and Marcellus shale gas supplies with
the fast-growing markets attached to the Texas Eastern system, in
particular natural gas-fired power generation.
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The OPEN project brings together the largest producer and
leaseholder in the Utica shale
play, the largest power generator in the region and the premier
pipeline company with over 60 years of safe and reliable
operational history in the state of Ohio. The project will involve approximately
70 miles of new pipeline and create an additional 1 billion cubic
feet per day (Bcf/d) of transportation capacity to serve local
distribution companies, industrial users and gas-fired power
generators in the Ohio market, as
well as markets along the Texas Eastern system.
The project is anticipated to deliver substantial investment in
energy infrastructure in the state through mineral leasing and
development and construction of pipeline gathering and
transportation infrastructure, as well as create significant jobs
and lasting tax revenue for the state.
As part of the project, American Electric Power continues to
invest in Ohio and will pursue
transportation capacity that would enable the company to connect
Ohio gas supplies with its
gas-fired power plants in the Midwest. Chesapeake, which holds 1.5 million net acres,
by far the largest acreage position in the Utica play, is pursuing capacity to access the
substantial Texas Eastern markets spanning from the Gulf of Mexico to the Northeast U.S.
"We are excited about the production potential of the
Utica and Marcellus shale in
Ohio and the ability to serve
communities with clean-burning and domestically abundant natural
gas," said Bill Yardley, group vice
president, Spectra Energy Transmission, Northeast. "At a time when
there is growing environmental need for cleaner power generation,
this new infrastructure will deliver clean, affordable and
much-needed energy to Ohio, the
Midwest and South."
A binding open season for the OPEN project is planned for the
first quarter 2012 with the projected in-service slated for
November 2014.
Spectra Energy Corp (NYSE: SE), a FORTUNE 500 company, is one
of North America's premier natural
gas infrastructure companies serving three key links in the natural
gas value chain: gathering and processing, transmission and
storage, and distribution. For more than a century, Spectra Energy
and its predecessor companies have developed critically important
pipelines and related infrastructure connecting natural gas supply
sources to premium markets. Based in Houston, Texas, the company's operations in
the United States and Canada include more than 19,000 miles of
transmission pipeline, over 305 billion cubic feet of storage, as
well as natural gas gathering and processing, natural gas liquids
operations and local distribution assets. The company also has a 50
percent ownership in DCP Midstream, one of the largest natural gas
gatherers and processors in the United
States. Spectra Energy is a member of the Dow Jones
Sustainability World and North America Indexes and the U.S. S&P
500 Carbon Disclosure Project's Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index.
For more information, visit
www.spectraenergy.com.
American Electric Power is one of the largest electric
utilities in the United States,
delivering electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11
states. AEP ranks among the nation's largest generators of
electricity, owning nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity
in the U.S. AEP also owns the nation's largest electricity
transmission system, a nearly 39,000-mile network that includes
more 765-kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all
other U.S. transmission systems combined. AEP's transmission system
directly or indirectly serves about 10 percent of the electricity
demand in the Eastern Interconnection, the interconnected
transmission system that covers 38 eastern and central U.S. states
and eastern Canada, and
approximately 11 percent of the electricity demand in ERCOT, the
transmission system that covers much of Texas. AEP's headquarters are in Columbus, Ohio.
Chesapeake Energy Corporation is the second-largest producer
of natural gas, a Top 15 producer of oil and natural gas liquids
and the most active driller of new wells in the U.S. Headquartered
in Oklahoma City, the company's
operations are focused on discovering and developing unconventional
natural gas and oil fields onshore in the U.S. Chesapeake owns leading positions in the
Barnett, Haynesville, Bossier, Marcellus and Pearsall natural gas shale plays and in the
Granite Wash, Cleveland,
Tonkawa, Mississippi Lime, Bone
Spring, Avalon, Wolfcamp, Wolfberry, Eagle Ford, Niobrara, Three
Forks/Bakken and Utica
unconventional liquids plays. The company has also vertically
integrated its operations and owns substantial midstream,
compression, drilling, trucking, pressure pumping and other
oilfield service assets directly and indirectly through its
subsidiaries Chesapeake Midstream Development, L.P. and Chesapeake
Oilfield Services, L.L.C. and its affiliate Chesapeake Midstream
Partners, L.P. (NYSE: CHKM). Chesapeake's stock is listed on the New York
Stock Exchange under the symbol CHK. Further information is
available at www.chk.com where Chesapeake routinely posts announcements,
updates, events, investor information, presentations and news
releases.
SOURCE Spectra Energy Corp