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Longhorn pipeline lies idle
Longhorn pipeline lies idle
El Paso Times
Friday, November 26, 2004
Vic Kolenc
The $300 million, Houston-to-El Paso Longhorn Partners Pipeline, which opened for business just over two months ago, has yet to have any companies make gasoline shipments through it. "We've seen shipper interest; it's just a matter of when shippers decide they need to move barrels (of fuel)," Gina Johnson, a Houston-based spokeswoman for Longhorn, said this week.
On another front, pipeline opponents saw their legal fight die when the U.S. Supreme Court last month declined to hear an appeal of their case against Longhorn. The pipeline operators have said the pipeline should help cut gasoline prices in El Paso by bringing more fuel here. Besides El Paso, fuel from the pipeline is expected to go to Phoenix, Tucson and Albuquerque area markets via other pipeline connections and trucks.
"Two shippers have completed the (pipeline application) process and can ship when they need to, and several others are in queue to get set up as shippers," Johnson said. Longhorn does not divulge shippers' identities, she said. "This process (of getting the pipeline open) was a long time in coming. No one expects overnight to have the pipeline shipping (fuel)," Johnson said. A Longhorn pipeline lateral connection from Crane, Texas, to Odessa opened just this month, she added.
However, in August, Richard Rabinow, Longhorn president and CEO, said he expected the pipeline's first shipments to begin in late September. Rabinow and other Longhorn officials were not available Wednesday and Thursday for comments.
Longhorn bought 1 million barrels of diesel and gasoline to fill the line for the so-called commissioning of the line, Johnson said. Fuel reached Longhorn's million-barrel storage terminal on Montana Avenue in far East El Paso County in late September. The pipeline, first proposed in 1995, was delayed for years by court battles over safety and environmental concerns by the city of Austin and others and by the loss in 2002 of one of the pipeline's financial partners.
Renea Hicks, an Austin lawyer representing some of the pipeline opponents, and David Smith, Austin city attorney, said the Supreme Court was the end of the road for the legal fight. "We are disappointed, but we do feel like (that) through proceedings through the lower court, we ended up with a safer pipeline," Smith said.
El Paso Times
Friday, November 26, 2004
Vic Kolenc
The $300 million, Houston-to-El Paso Longhorn Partners Pipeline, which opened for business just over two months ago, has yet to have any companies make gasoline shipments through it. "We've seen shipper interest; it's just a matter of when shippers decide they need to move barrels (of fuel)," Gina Johnson, a Houston-based spokeswoman for Longhorn, said this week.
On another front, pipeline opponents saw their legal fight die when the U.S. Supreme Court last month declined to hear an appeal of their case against Longhorn. The pipeline operators have said the pipeline should help cut gasoline prices in El Paso by bringing more fuel here. Besides El Paso, fuel from the pipeline is expected to go to Phoenix, Tucson and Albuquerque area markets via other pipeline connections and trucks.
"Two shippers have completed the (pipeline application) process and can ship when they need to, and several others are in queue to get set up as shippers," Johnson said. Longhorn does not divulge shippers' identities, she said. "This process (of getting the pipeline open) was a long time in coming. No one expects overnight to have the pipeline shipping (fuel)," Johnson said. A Longhorn pipeline lateral connection from Crane, Texas, to Odessa opened just this month, she added.
However, in August, Richard Rabinow, Longhorn president and CEO, said he expected the pipeline's first shipments to begin in late September. Rabinow and other Longhorn officials were not available Wednesday and Thursday for comments.
Longhorn bought 1 million barrels of diesel and gasoline to fill the line for the so-called commissioning of the line, Johnson said. Fuel reached Longhorn's million-barrel storage terminal on Montana Avenue in far East El Paso County in late September. The pipeline, first proposed in 1995, was delayed for years by court battles over safety and environmental concerns by the city of Austin and others and by the loss in 2002 of one of the pipeline's financial partners.
Renea Hicks, an Austin lawyer representing some of the pipeline opponents, and David Smith, Austin city attorney, said the Supreme Court was the end of the road for the legal fight. "We are disappointed, but we do feel like (that) through proceedings through the lower court, we ended up with a safer pipeline," Smith said.
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