FERC on Tuesday granted Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America (NGPL) waivers of its tariff and agency regulations to mitigate the effect of planned repairs on its Amarillo Line to its shippers.

In seeking the waivers earlier this month, Natural said a force majeure situation will require it to suspend service on sections of the Amarillo Line for five to seven weeks to repair “isolated anomalies” that were uncovered while carrying out its Pipeline Integrity Management Program. In order to hydrostatically test the line, Natural reported that it will need to reduce the capacity on the affected portion of the Amarillo Line by about 134,000 Dth/d below system design capacity. It plans to begin the repair process on the Sept. 1 gas day.

The Kinder Morgan-owned pipeline said the affected portion of the line extends from Compressor Station 109 in Harper County, IA, to Compressor Station 110 in Geneseo, IL.

FERC “finds that Natural’s waiver requests are justified and in the interest of its shippers,” although it “cannot confirm that the circumstances requiring suspension of service on the Amarillo Line constitutes a force majeure event,” the order said [RP05-565].

The 10,000-mile NGPL system delivers gas from major U.S. and Canadian producing areas to Midwest markets and other pipelines serving North America. Natural’s system consists of two parallel mainlines — the Amarillo Line that originates in the Permian Basin and runs northeast to Iowa, then east to Chicago; and the Gulf Coast Line that begins in Texas and Louisiana and runs to Chicago. The two mainlines are connected by a crossover line in Texas.

In its petition, NGPL proposed to offer discounts or assess no charge on certain alternative paths using the pipeline’s parallel Gulf Coast Line to help shippers mitigate the impact of the temporary capacity reduction on the Amarillo Line. NGPL said it has used its discount authority under its tariff to implement some of these actions, but that it needed several waivers to put its mitigation proposal into effect completely.

Specifically, it asked FERC to waive: 1) the zone limitations for opposite leg rights in its tariff; 2) all interruptible transportation charges for Gulf Coast Line-sourced gas from specific receipt areas into specified Amarillo Line storage points; 3) the discount posting requirement; and 4) the transactional posting requirement on a limited basis.

“The waiver of zone limitations for opposite leg rights and the waiver of all interruptible transportation charges will assist shippers in filling their Amarillo Line storage for the coming winter and will offset the adverse consequences of the capacity reduction on the Amarillo Line,” the order said.

“The Commission also finds that because Natural is effectively announcing in its petition that all qualifying firm transportation shippers will either pay the lower of their current reservation charge or the four cents Dth/d rate offered by Natural, and because interruptible transportation shippers will pay no charges for deliveries of Gulf Coast-sourced gas from specified points into specified Amarillo Line storage points, the limited waiver of the posting requirements for five to seven weeks will cause no harm to the market.”

The order directs NGPL to notify FERC and its shippers within five days of when repairs are completed on the affected portions of the Amarillo Line and the line is brought back into service.

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