EP’s industrial board visits PPEC

Posted June 28th, 2009
Michael Bordelon

Buy photo reprints

By: MICHAEL BORDELON
News Editor

The Industrial Development Board, Number One, held its meeting Tuesday, June 23, at the site of the Pine Prairie Energy Center (PPEC) and was treated to a tour of the facility.

Employees at the energy center, which uses caverns carved from a large salt dome deposit to store natural gas, informed board members how the operation works and what they are currently planning. Storage Facility Manager Donald Fontenot told board members two caverns have been completed and are ready for gas storage and a third cavern is in the process of being leached. (Leaching is the process in which water is pumped into the salt dome to carve out the cavern.)

Dean Liollio, president, informed board members PPEC needed their help. He said PPEC is looking to expand its operation by adding a fourth and fifth cavern. However, to do so, he said the board would need to consider taking over 240 acres of property owned by PPEC to expand the existing property tax abatement and change wording in the current lease agreement to exclude what they call “base gas.” Liollio said base gas is gas owned by PPEC that is used in the caverns to keep them pressurized. He said the caverns cannot be left empty, because there would be nothing to keep the caverns under the 800 psig (pound-force per square inch gauge) they need them to be. He stated the current lease agreement does not contain an exclusion for base gas and he did not want the company to be required to pay inventory tax on that gas.

During the tour of the facility, board members were joined by several police jurors, Eric Soileau, Ryan Williams and Bryan Vidrine; Sheriff Eddie Soileau; and District Attorney Trent Brignac.

The tour took visitors around the facility, where they learned approximately $6.2 million in valves were purchased from Cameron. They also were shown the large engines used to compress natural gas in the caverns.

Liollio said he could have all necessary information on the expansion for board members to review on July 15. Board members agreed to hold a special meeting Monday, July 20, at 5:30 p.m. at the police jury meeting room to discuss that information.