Alliance Pipeline informed its shippers yesterday that all debrishas been cleared from the pipe, all connections are up and running,and that commercial service will begin on Dec. 1. Commercial serviceoriginally was expected to begin on Oct. 1 but was delayed severaltimes because of commissioning problems (see Daily GPI, Nov. 10).

“We’ve tested all of our connections and we’ve been flowingvolumes [to Midwestern LDCs] up to about half [663 MMcf/d] of whatthe pipeline is capable of transporting,” said Alliance spokesmanJack Crawford.

“We are asking our shippers today to provide forecasts to us ofwhat they expect to do in the first month. The last time we didthis the forecasts we got suggested that we’d be running at about1.325 Bcf on the first day.”

One of the key questions remaining is whether Alliance’s maindownstream supply outlet, the 270-mile Vector Pipeline project, willbe ready to go as well on Dec. 1. Vector had construction problemsbecause of wet weather and also was forced to delay its start-up fromNov. 1 (see Daily GPI, Oct. 4). Thepipeline would transport 700 MMcf/d of gas initially from Joliet, IL,through Indiana and Michigan to Dawn, ON, but would be expanded to 1Bcf/d next November.

“The last I heard they were expecting to make [the deadline],”said Crawford. “We actually tested our meter with them over theweekend and it’s all up and running, but that might be a subsequentevent if they have a problem. It’s been a challenge for them to getgoing, but it looks like they are all ready to go.”

A Vector spokesman confirmed that commissioning is goingsmoothly and operations appear to be on schedule for Dec. 1start-up. “Right now everybody still feels that Dec. 1 is doable,”he said. “You might want to touch base again next week and see howit looks, but right now it looks like we’re getting things prettywell wrapped up.

“The last place where we’ve been completing work has been up inthe Milford and Highland Townships in Oakland County, MI. That’sthe area just before we go in the portion of the pipeline thatwe’re leasing from Michigan Consolidated Gas Co. As of last Friday,they still hadn’t reached that area with linepack [gas].”

Crawford said the Aux Sable liquids plant also is up andrunning, and previous pipeline coordination difficulties have beenironed out. “They are still bringing it up to full scale. They areshort both volume and heat content at the moment and that’s bydesign. The pipeline is flowing at about half volume at the moment,and in addition to that we’ve been running lean test gas.”

Farther upstream, Alliance still has one lateral, the PeaceRiver Lateral, that will be delayed because of the impact of wetsummer weather on construction. “It will be up and running perhapsnot by Dec. 1 but in a week or two. It’s an eight and 10-inch line.It’s relatively small,” he said.

Once the massive new pipeline is running smoothly, the nextsteps to be taken include potential connections with severalproposed pipelines in and around Chicago, including potentially theGuardian, Horizon and Whitecap Energy projects.

“We also looked at a couple of other receipt connections on theupstream side,” said Crawford. “We’ve obviously talked about apotential expansion in the future, but as we found out by talkingto people it looks like the supply additions in the WesternCanadian Sedimentary Basin have not been as brisk as we might havethought, probably because of the downturn in the oil price a coupleof years ago. It’s likely that an expansion would be delayed for ayear or two or even three.

“The best that I’ve been able to ascertain from talking topeople is that our supply deliverability really has not increasedvery much in the last two to three years, and as a consequence atleast in the short run the gas on our system will end up coming outof other systems.”

He also mentioned that TransCanada is planning to take some ofits capacity out of service, including retiring some oldercompressors and rewheeling others, in order to reduce the amount ofexcess pipeline capacity in the Canadian gas market.

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