NATURAL GAS COMPANY TO DRILL THREE NEW AREA WELLS:

[Over the years, the Western Gas Resources company sold the Katy Hub and then it was subsequently sold again and again. In 2001, the owner was Aquila, Inc.  The first owner for whom I can find a record is Perry Homes who sold the property to Black, Tuesday Inc,  who sold the property to Western Gas Resources Storage Inc., who sold it to Black, Tuesday Inc., who sold it to Alcorn Western Properties, Inc., who sold it to Western Gas Resources Storage Inc., who sold it to Aquila Storage &Transportation LP, who sold it to Katy Storage and Transportation who sold it to Enstor Katy Storage and Transportation LP who currently owns it.

My question at this point in time (2017) is, with all the changes over the years, is the proper amount of tax being paid by the current owner to all the governmental entities that now serve the area of this hub?  Who is overseeing that matter? Have they kept up with all the improvements and additions to the structures on the property? Did the KISD school board do its due diligence over the years? How about the Fort Bend Appraisal District? Recall that Western promised to be "one of the ten largest taxpayers in Fort Bend County and one of the largest taxpayers in Katy ISD when they were trying to sweet talk us into either voting for their proposition or at least not commenting at all--which the KISD Board did. So by acquiescence, the Board agreed to this project. They did drag their feet in selling the rights for the Morris Cummins tract. When the Texas Railroad Commission vote was 2-1 to approve the project, it was obviously important what the KISD Board did. 

Did the Katy City Council do their due diligence as well?  I think they should have had a free fire truck out of the deal if nothing else. I notice that the City of Katy has chosen not to annex this area.  Why is that?

The Katy ISD school board had a responsibility in three areas.  It needed to make certain that the students at Tompkins High School were protected by a berm (which was the recommendation when I asked Mr. Sander that specific question in 1991), they shouldn't have purchased the land for a second stadium in an area that they (Joe Adams) should have known was in the path of a gas blowout if one were to occur), and they needed to keep track of the building on the property to make sure the school district derived the most tax revenue that they could over the years. Many improvements and additions to the property have occurred since 1991. MM]

Natural Gas Company to Drill Three New Area Wells [This will make 12 or 13--but who's counting?]

The Houston Chronicle

July 15, 2001

Aquila, Inc., plans to increase the amount of natural gas that can be injected and withdrawn from its storage facility near Katy to help meet growing demands for natural gas in the greater Houston area.

The project, which the company expects to complete by the end of the year, involves drilling three new wells and reworking three of the nine wells currently used to inject and withdraw natural gas from the storage reservoir that is 6,800 feet below the surface.  The facility is south of Interstate 10 highway near the city of Katy.

"As more gas fired power plants come on line, this facility will become more important to the residents of the communities surrounding Houston," says Dean Fuller, senior vice president and general manager of Aquila's Midstream Services. [We already know that this facility serves way more than just the outlying Houston communities!]

'"Since our facility is shielded by landscaping and greenways from the surrounding area, most people will not even notice that we are doing anything different than normal.  Even the noise level from the streets around our facility will be no louder the [sic] conversations in a busy restaurant on a Sunday afternoon."

The facility is operated from the 15-acre surface site with 15 employees.  For more than 40 years the storage reservoir was a producing natural gas field known as the Fulshear (Hillebrenner) Field.

By 1993 the field was depleted and a permit was issued for it to operate as a depleted reservoir for storage of dry natural gas.  Aquila bought the facility in 1999 from Western Gas Resources storage, Inc., a Denver-based independent gas gatherer, processor and energy marketer. [Obviously the writer of the article doesn't really know the dates of things. MM]

When the new wells are completed and two new compressors installed, the facility will be capable of 4.6 annual turns versus the current two.  The new injection rate will be increased 149 percent to 600,000 MCF/d and the withdrawal capability will be increased 42 percent to 750,00 [sic?] MC/d.  The Katy facility has 13 pipelines interconnections with 12 different pipelines.

Based in Kansas City, Aquila is one of the top wholesalers of electricity and natural gas in North America, is an innovative provider of risk management products and services and owns and controls a diverse portfolio of merchant assets including power plans, gas storage, pipeline, and processing facilities, and other complementary merchant infrastructure facilities.

Aquila also provides wholesale energy services in the United Kingdom, Scandinavia and Germany.  Additional information is available at http://www.aquila.com

Aquila is 80 percent owned by UtiliCorp United, a multinational energy company based in Kansas City with more than 4 million customers.  UtiliCorp operates in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.