Affecting

Summer weather — and the U.S. economy — may be the most important factors affecting the natural gas market over the coming six months, according to energy analysts.

Dominion said two OFOs affecting its New York state service area would go into effect Saturday until further notice. The Conform Transportation Services to Scheduled Nominations OFO #1 was to apply to the meters of Corning Natural Gas, New York State Electric & Gas, Rochester Gas & Electric, Niagara Mohawk Power, Niagara Mohawk Power East, Fillmore Gas, National Fuel Gas Distribution and Steuben Storage. The FTNN Hourly Limit OFO #2 affected the same meters except those of National Fuel and Steuben.

FERC’s recent decisions on gas quality standards for Florida Gas Transmission (FGT) in a precedent-setting case ( RP04-249) affecting LNG have drawn criticism from both ends and the pipeline itself: from suppliers who claim it will severely limit LNG imports, to power generators who claim the Commission should have provided cost mitigation for end users whose equipment must be changed to handle a different gas quality.

FERC’s recent decisions on gas quality standards for Florida Gas Transmission (FGT) in a precedent-setting case ( RP04-249) affecting LNG have drawn criticism from both ends and the pipeline itself: from suppliers who claim it will severely limit LNG imports, to power generators who claim the Commission should have provided cost mitigation for end users whose equipment must be changed to handle a different gas quality.

CIG issued an OFO affecting all shippers under rate schedules TF-1, TF-4, NNT-1, NNT-2 and CS-1. It was scheduled to take effect Saturday until further notice. As the pipeline said it had indicated in a Strained Operating Condition notice posted Wednesday, “CIG’s ability to handle imbalances caused by variations between scheduled receipts/deliveries and actual gas flow as well as any related excess injections into its storage fields is limited due to current high inventory levels. Since that posting, CIG’s storage inventories have continued to increase. CIG is in a critical operational situation related to its storage fields.” The OFO requires that all storage customers limit their inventory to no more than 102% of their contractual Maximum Available Capacity (MAC). Those with storage currently exceeding 102% of MAC should initiate withdrawals to return such inventory to within the OFO limits, CIG said. See the bulletin board for further details.

Besides the extensive power infrastructure that has to be rebuilt, Entergy Corp. said last week there was “extensive damage” to its natural gas system, affecting service to many of its 147,000 customers in the New Orleans area. And Atmos Energy Corp., the largest natural gas distributor in Louisiana and Mississippi, hopes to have 70% of its most affected customers back in service within six months and 90% in service within a year.

Besides the extensive power infrastructure that has to be rebuilt, Entergy said there also was “extensive damage” to its natural gas system, affecting service to many of its 147,000 customers in the New Orleans area.

Severe thunderstorms knocked out multiple natural gas processing plants near Empress, AB, on Tuesday evening, affecting several Bcf/d of processing capacity and significant production of ethane, propane and other gas liquids. TransCanada PipeLines said six processing plants and related operations lost power and suffered some damage, including plants owned by ConocoPhillips, EnCana, Atco, Inter Pipeline and BP Canada. No injuries were reported in any of the outages.

The Republican draft energy bill was close to emerging from three House committees Wednesday with provisions affecting natural gas virtually unscathed by a host of defeated amendments offered by Democrats.