In a move that is likely to send ripples through the market,particularly around Chicago, the 1.325 Bcf/d Alliance Pipelineextended its commercial in-service delay last week to Nov. 13 fromOct. 30. Pipeline officials said moisture and debris in the linecaused the delay.

“As we have increased the flow of test gas volumes during oursystem commissioning, we have encountered moisture and debris fromconstruction,” said CEO Norm Gish. “Specifically, most of thedebris is in the form of small pieces of foam from the [smart] pigsthat were used to remove the hydrostatic testing water from theline. The problem forced us to shut down the system for shortperiods of time to clean out accumulated debris.

“We have since designed and installed additional in-line screensat our compressor stations. The situation is improving and we areremoving ever-decreasing amounts of debris with increased flows oftest gas. However, this situation has not permitted us to run oursystem with the significant volumes necessary to adequately testthe reliability of our compressors.”

It is the second time Alliance has had to delay its in-servicedate. In early September, Alliance officials said rain in Saskatchewanthis summer, directional drilling problems at a creek in BritishColumbia, complex connection problems with the Aux Sable liquids plantin Illinois and connection delays with several U.S. pipelines andLDCs was to blame for a one-month delay to Oct. 30 (see Daily GPI, Sept. 11).

The pipeline will continue increasing test volumes until itbegins commercial service, said Gish. There currently is about 500MMcf/d of test gas in the line. He expects firm delivery capacityto reach the full 1.325 Bcf/d prior to Nov. 13.

Alliance officials also noted that this is the first time apipeline the size of Alliance has been brought on stream at onetime.

Regardless of the challenge, however, market participants wereexpecting the system to be delivering gas starting at the beginningof the month of November and this delay is likely to have asignificant impact on November bidweek trading.

One Chicago trader said he had a strong suspicion something wasfishy when his index offers were lifted Friday afternoon by amarketing company, which he knows to own capacity on the pipe.”Everyone was a buyer of index gas today for November, especiallythose now short for the first 13 days. I sold mine at NGI plus 1.5,but had I known that Alliance was delayed I would have held out forsomething a little better.”

Basis, meanwhile, was pretty much unchanged at +13 to +14 forNovember. “It takes a lot to move the Chicago basis,” he said.

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