PITTSBURGH—There’s a new big dog in the Northeast.

Born during the polar vortex winter of 2013-2014, Energy Transfer Partners LP’s (NYSE: ETP) Rover pipeline is now 99% complete and sprawling across a vast swath of the country.

“Rover has an extensive footprint in the supply zone and it’s pretty much a bullet line over to the market,” Beth Hickey, Energy Transfer’s senior vice president for interstates, told attendees of the recent Marcellus-Utica Midstream Conference. “We have 715 miles of pipeline, 10 compressor stations totaling 215,000 horsepower. The initial forward haul of our project will be 3.25 Bcf a day when we’re fully in service.”

Significantly, Rover’s reach is amplified by opportunities to interconnect with Energy Transfer’s Panhandle Eastern and Trunkline pipelines, and the Dawn pipeline, which will move gas from eastern Ontario and other eastern Canadian supply points. Panhandle and ANR will provide access to the Midwest, with ANR reaching south to the Gulf Coast.

The connections are already having an impact.

“One of the big markets that we’re seeing on Trunkline is our connect with Creole Trail, which serves Sabine Pass [La.] liquefaction,” Hickey said, referring to Cheniere Energy Inc.’s (AMEX: LNG) pipeline and massive LNG export terminal. “Physical deliveries into Sabine Pass on the Creole Trail have grown over the time period that Rover’s been in service.

“We’ve reached daily deliveries of 600 million cubic feet a day on Creole Trail to serve Sabine Pass liquefaction so it’s a great market access,” she said.

Rover is anything but a fair-weather pipeline:

  • Commercial negotiations and marketing development started during the polar vortex in early 2014;
  • The company proceeded through the whirlwind starting in June 2014 and ending with approval of its 7c application in February 2017; and
  • The leg from Leesville to Defiance in Ohio began during Hurricane Harvey in September 2018, when staff in Houston were somewhat distracted.

The importance of lines like Rover was evident during the recent bomb cyclone, Hickey said, when prices soared at points where its shippers have access. The benchmark natural gas price at Henry Hub jumped 60% between Dec. 26 and Jan. 3.

However, at the Dawn hub, the price skyrocketed 322%, in Chicago the price was up 358% and at Trunkline’s Zone 1A, the price climbed 275%

“We think this is a great reminder to markets and to shippers,” she said, “that it’s good to hold transportation capacity and it’s good to buy gas on a long-term basis.”

Joseph Markman can be reached at jmarkman@hartenergy.com and @JHMarkman.