The two major interstate natural gas pipelines serving hurricane-ravaged Florida — Florida Gas Transmission (FGT) and Gulfstream Natural Gas System — reported last Monday they survived Charley with nary a scratch, but that their gas deliveries into the Sunshine State were down due to the number of their customers (power generation plants) that were off-line. But by the end of the week, both pipelines said their deliveries had returned to their normal levels.

FGT spokeswoman Gina Taylor estimated last Monday that deliveries of the pipeline, which is jointly owned by El Paso Corp. and CrossCountry Energy, had fallen to 1.99 Bcf/d from normal deliveries of 2-2.1 Bcf/d due to the inability of downed power plants to take their loads. But “we’re pretty much back to normal,” she said Friday.

There also was a drop in natural gas demand from customers on the Gulfstream system, according to spokesman Danny Gibbs. He said on an average day Gulfstream moves 500 MMcf/d into Florida, but that at the start of last week it was delivering about 100 MMcf/d less because at least two power plants served by Gulfstream were down. “We expect to be back to normal by the end of the weekend,” a pipeline spokesman told NGI Friday.

Key transportation customers of Gulfstream are Florida Power & Light and Progress Energy Florida, whose transmission lines and power plants were hard hit by Hurricane Charley could take weeks. Gulfstream is jointly owned by Williams and Duke Energy.

Gibbs said Gulfstream Natural Gas last week was reminding affected power facilities that balancing of gas receipts and deliveries was critical, meaning that they should not put any more gas into the pipeline than they can take out on a typical day.

He noted that Gulfstream’s construction of a 110-mile mainline pipeline to extend the pipe’s reach from Central Florida to the state’s east coast was unaffected by the hurricane. “We came through in really good shape.”

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