A Citizen’s Guide

The Associated Press carried an interesting natural gas story on Friday involving a couple of names from the Alaska gas line discussion: ConocoPhillips and Sempra. The story is about the Rockies Express pipeline.

Here’s the top of the AP piece:

Energy companies behind the $4 billion Rockies Express natural gas pipeline are looking at extending it to Pennsylvania as interest grows in a new way to deliver gas to East Coast markets.

ConocoPhillips said Friday it has joined the ownership group of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP and Sempra Pipelines & Storage by exercising an option to acquire a 24 percent interest in the 1,663-mile project. It plans to acquire an additional 1 percent interest after construction is complete.

“We believe this project is a strategic addition to our natural gas business and will provide ConocoPhillips and others a long-term outlet for delivering Rocky Mountain production to the upper Midwest and eastern United States,” Randy L. Limbacher, a company executive vice president, said in a statement. A ConocoPhillips spokesman declined additional comment.

With construction under way and capacity already sold out, the companies are gauging interest in extending the pipeline to Oakford, Pa., project spokesman Larry Pierce said. “Virtually all of the capacity sold out back in February,” he said.

Initial response to the proposed extension has been good, but the companies haven’t made a final decision, he said.