Growth Projects: Hardy Storage

The October 4, 2007, commissioning of the Hardy Storage Project capped a process that began in 2000 with initial discussions between project partners NiSource Gas Transmission & Storage and Piedmont Natural Gas about meeting the growing market demand for storage services. The result: 12 billion cubic feet of new market-area natural gas storage, and a new compressor station with 7,100 horsepower.

Here are some facts about the project:

What Hardy Means for West Virginia

  • The Hardy Storage Project and related facilities represent an investment of nearly $250 million in the region’s energy infrastructure.
  • During construction, the project created nearly 1,000 jobs, many of them for West Virginians.
  • The project will result in $2.6 million in new taxes annually flowing to West Virginia. This is in addition to the more than $14 million in taxes the company pays annually to the state.
  • Hardy Storage represents a new strategic energy asset for NGT&S, the largest interstate pipeline and storage company operating in West Virginia. The company operates 2,500 miles of pipeline in the state, along with 15 storage fields and 728 wells that provide 265 billion cubic feet of capacity. This represents about 40 percent of the company’s total storage assets
  • The company has operated in West Virginia for more than 75 years, and today has more than 600 employees in the state, with annual payroll of more than $39 million.

Key Customers

  • Washington Gas
  • Piedmont Natural Gas
  • Baltimore Gas & Electric
  • The City of Charlottesville

Hardy Storage

  • The Hardy Storage field covers an area of about 36,000 acres in Hardy and Hampshire counties in West Virginia.
  • Nine new wells were drilled at a depth of about 6,800 feet in the Oriskany Sandstone formation.
  • 15 production wells were reconditioned for use as storage wells.
  • Drilling on the first well began on April 10, 2006.
  • Injections into the field began on April 1, 2007.

Hardy Compressor Station

  • Work on the Hardy Compressor Station began in June 2006.
  • The station features 2 high-speed turbine engines rated at 3,550 horsepower each. This is equal to the horsepower of the cars in the first five rows of a NASCAR race.
  • Completing the station required about 233,350 total work hours.
  • The station has more than 6,300 total welds; more than 3,400 x-ray tests were performed on the welds.
  • About 230,000 cubic yards of earth were removed to create the station site. About 25,000 cubic yards of the removed soil will be used for backfill.

Hardy Project Key Team Members

  • Project Manager: Alena Barnett
  • Compressor Station Project Manager: Jim Sparks
  • Chief Inspector, Compressor Station: Ralph Moore
  • Senior Storage Engineer: Jim Amos
  • Construction Manager, Pipeline: Jeff Taylor
  • Environmental Permitting: Scott Burnsworth
  • Chief Inspector, Pipeline: Barry Tanhoff
  • Project Support: Mary Reynolds-Hairston
  • Stakeholder outreach: Kelly Merritt
  • Office Manager, Pipeline: Kay Tanhoff
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