Escondido Gas Storage
Torch affiliate Escondido Gas Storage, LLC (Escondido) is currently developing an 18 Bcf storage facility located approximately 55 miles southeast of San Antonio, Texas in Live Oak and Karnes counties. The Escondido facility will be constructed in the depleted Atkinson Gas Field and will initially have 18 Bcf of working capacity. Design plans include an injection rate of 275 MMcf/d and a withdrawal rate of 335 MMcf/d, allowing 3 to 4 cycles per year. Storage capacity could be expanded based on market interest.
Escondido’s potential pipeline connections include CPS Energy, Enterprise Texas Pipeline LLC, Gulf South Pipeline Company, Houston Pipe Line Company LP, Kinder Morgan Texas Pipeline LLC, and Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corporation (Transco). Escondido will offer intrastate storage services pursuant to the rules and regulations of the TRC. Pending the results of its open season, Escondido may also file a Section 311 Application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to provide firm and interruptible storage service and interruptible hub services to interstate markets.
The Escondido project will be located in south central Texas, approximately 65 miles north of the Aqua Dulce production hub in Nueces County. The Agua Dulce hub is connected to at least two pipelines that could be connected to the Escondido project header system; the project will be the nearest storage facility to that hub.
Through its potential pipeline connections, the project will access market and production hubs in Texas, along the gulf coast, and into the midwest and eastern United States. The Escondido project is ideally situated to mitigate transportation and storage constraints that will occur as new gulf coast LNG terminals become operational. Further, the counties surrounding the Project are home to 27 gas-fired electric generating plants, most of which are served by one or more of the pipelines accessible to the Escondido project.
Escondido will provide a cost effective way to balance seasonal natural gas supply and demand as well as a physical hedge against supply disruptions and price volatility. With access to multiple interstate and intrastate pipelines, Escondido’s state of the art facility will provide its natural gas customers supply stability and market opportunity.
For more information on Escondido, see www.escondidogasstorage.com.