Columbia Gulf declared a force majeure Monday for meters upstream of and including the Egan (LA) Measurement Stations (Meter Nos. 433, 434, 437, and 438) due to high water around the Pecan Island Compressor and Separation Station resulting from Hurricane Rita. Physical flow and scheduled volumes at the affected points have been reduced to zero until further notice.

Saying it would “significantly limit throughput on the 100 Line,” Tennessee declared force majeure Saturday for Station 25 in Cleveland, TX and Station 32 in Jasper, TX due to power outages and evacuations resulting from Hurricane Rita. Tennessee also confirmed a leak on the 524G-100 Line from Bay Marchand 5 to Leeville. Initial assessments revealed moderate damage to the Starks, LA compressor (Station 820) and the Johnson Bayou Dehydration Plant, the pipeline said. More detailed assessments were being performed Monday. Inlet valves at the Grand Chenier Plant, Johnson Bayou Plant, Blue Water Plant and Sabine Plant on the 800 Line remain shut in, Tennessee said.

Gulf South declared a force majeure Sunday until further notice on the offshore Eugene Island Burns System. It will affect Gulf South’s ability to provide service to 18 points (see bulletin board for listing).

Only Compressor Station 342 in Cameron Parish, LA remained unavailable for operation Monday of the stations that were expected to be impacted by Hurricane Rita (see Daily GPI, Sept. 22), NGPL said. Several meter locations along the Louisiana Line are not accessible due to high water, it added. Evaluations will be made at each site in upcoming days to determine any damage and future availability. Due to these issues, capacity of the Louisiana Line remains reduced and a force majeure continues.

The Trunkline LNG facility in Lake Charles, LA appeared to be intact on initial inspection, operator Panhandle Energy said. However, the terminal will remain shut down for ship unloadings and sendout until further notice.

Effective with the Intraday 2 nomination cycle for Monday’s gas day and all nominations for Tuesday, Transco discontinued its Emergency Gas Supply Procedures for Hurricane Rita. It also returned pool scheduling tolerances to 4% and allow due-shipper or Operational Balancing Agreement party transactions to be nominated. Park and loan activity will be allowed as operationally possible,” the pipeline said. It does not expect an immediate return of production from the areas affected by Rita, specifically the Southwest Louisiana lateral (including the UTOS interconnect, North High Island and West Cameron laterals) and the Central Louisiana Lateral. Until its personnel have had a chance to return to the affected areas and ensure safe operations, Transco will not allow IT or secondary FT transactions to be nominated from points on those two laterals.

Based on initial reports, Southern Natural Gas said it was unaware of any facility damage from Hurricane Rita that would impact currently flowing supply. However, more detailed assessments will be needed. “Scheduled supply at pipeline interconnects on our west leg in the supply area remain well below levels that were flowing prior to Hurricane Rita,” the pipeline said, urging all customers to monitor business with their upstream suppliers. As a result of Rita, many of Southern’s efforts to assess and repair damages from Hurricane Katrina have been suspended for the past few days and are expected to remain suspended for the next few days due to weather conditions and flooding. “Additionally, some reassessment of those facilities damaged during Hurricane Katrina will be required,” Southern said. “Therefore, it is unlikely that we will meet the mid-October date posted prior to Hurricane Rita as the time when initial flows upstream of Toca might resume” (see Daily GPI, Sept. 20).

Because it is trying to fill its Jackson Prairie storage facility by Sept. 30 and cannot accommodate any system drafting at this time, Northwest said it will be forced to consider customer-specific and/or general entitlements. If Northwest experiences excessive drafting, it will declare a Stage III entitlement (13% tolerance) for overruns for receiving parties located north of the Kemmerer (WY) Compressor Station beginning Wednesday until after Jackson Prairie testing is completed on Oct. 7. Northwest also said crews successfully installed a clamp over the weekend on a small leak on the 26-inch mainline near the Pleasant View Compressor Station (see Daily GPI, Sept. 26), and that will serve as a permanent repair. Thus a cut-out of the leak section scheduled for Tuesday has been canceled and nominations through Pleasant View will not be impacted.

Westcoast said Monday it is still trying to remove a hydrate discovered late last week in the 18-inch Alaska Highway Pipeline in the Fort St. John Gathering System. The Alaska Highway lateral upstream of milepost 6.7 will remain shut in until this problem has been resolved. The Kobes Compressor Station has been taken offline, and McMahon Plant is continuing to run at reduced flows as a result of this problem, Westcoast said. However, customers were not asked to adjust their business, linepack remains stable and no constraint is likely at this time, it added.

The Houston offices of ANR remained closed Monday, and although inspection of its facilities had begun, it was too early to speculate on any damage findings, the pipeline said. ANR Transportation Services continued to implement its Business Resumption Plan with the relocation of daily operations personnel to ANR’s dispatch center just north of Houston.

Two Panhandle Energy pipelines — Florida Gas Transmission and Transwestern — resumed operations from their Houston facilities at 10 a.m. CDT Monday. However, the company advised shippers that limited staff was available due to Houston conditions. Staffing levels should be back to normal Tuesday, it said. Three other Panhandle pipes — Trunkline, Panhandle Eastern and Sea Robin — which had planned to move operations to Lake Charles, LA last week canceled that plan when Rita swung more toward southwest Louisiana and returned to Houston, a spokesman said.

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