Detroit-based DTE Energy has announced approved applications by the Ontario Energy Board on the proposed Nexus pipeline that will serve natural gas customers from Michigan, Ohio, and Chicago beginning next November. Nexus is a joint venture between DTE Energy and Houston-based Spectra Energy Corp.
“These approvals represent a significant milestone and confirm long-term support for our Nexus pipeline from these local distribution companies in Ontario,” says David Slater, president of DTE gas storage and pipelines.
Slater says the 255-mile natural gas transmission pipeline will deliver 1.5 billion cubic feet per day from eastern Ohio to an existing pipeline system in southeastern Michigan.
“The Nexus project represents a tremendous opportunity for customers to access natural gas from both the Utica and Marcellus shale plays and move it through markets in Ohio and Michigan to the Dawn Hub (located south of Sarnia), the second largest physically traded gas hub in North America,” says Bill Yardley, president of U.S. transmission and storage for Spectra Energy.
Slater says Nexus will provide consumers across the region with clean-burning natural gas to help meet the growing demand for cleaner power generation, industrial and commercial use, and home heating. He says a number of industrial facilities and power generators have also recently signed agreements with the project.
According to a study released last month by the Ohio State Grange, an agricultural advocacy group, the Nexus pipeline and the proposed $4.3 billion Rover pipeline that would run through Michigan and other states will benefit agricultural producers in Michigan and other states in the Midwest with stable energy prices.
