NorTex Midstream Partners, LLC, in cooperation with the IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), has launched a natural gas ICE trading point in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex.

The Dallas/Ft. Worth power market is one of the largest and fastest growing in the country, with more than 60 percent of installed capacity now being fueled by clean burning natural gas.

"Our Tolar Hub is the first ICE trading point for natural gas in North Texas and offers transparent fixed pricing, index pricing and basis trading," said Marketing Vice President John Holcomb. "We believe this greatly improves our value to market participants by increasing liquidity, counterparty visibility and overall trading activity. The one thing that hasn't changed is our customer focus. NorTex will continue to offer services that reach beyond storage to deliver revenue optimization and asset reliability solutions."

One of the most active and liquid physical gas trading points in North Texas, the Tolar Hub directly connects NorTex's Worsham-Steed Gas Storage Facility to five Texas intrastate pipelines with more than 2 Bcfd of pipeline take-away capacity and 1 Bcfd of metering capacity. Worsham-Steed has 23 Bcf of storage capacity and 450,000 Mcfd of maximum withdrawal capability.

"We're very pleased with the initial results from the NorTex Tolar Hub/ICE trading activities," President and CEO Rob Foss said. "We expect trading activity at the hub to grow as natural gas supplants coal as the fuel of choice for power generation. We also believe that highly liquid physical trading points, such as the NorTex Tolar Hub ICE point, will be critical to the efficient deployment of renewable resources, especially wind driven generation."