Affecting

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports likely will be the most important determinant of market conditions over the next 10 years, affecting prices and storage, an energy consultant said Friday.

El Paso said the well maintenance work Wednesday at Washington Ranch storage facility was affecting only half of the wells, and thus it was able to continue withdrawals or injections of approximately 75 MMcf/d. On Thursday it will be necessary to withdraw for at least a portion of the day to remove the dissolved solids from the treated well.

Florida Gas Transmission kept an Overage Alert Day notice affecting its market-area customers in place Wednesday but loosened the tolerance for negative daily imbalances from 15% to 25%.

Citing five years of drought affecting water levels in its Salt Lake City Area Integrated Projects (SLCA/IP), the federal Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) earlier this month indicated in the Federal Register that it would be cutting back on hydro power supply and keeping capacity at current levels for its 20-year supply contracts over the next 20 years beginning with the new federal fiscal year on Oct. 1.

Transwestern maintenance at WT-2 Compressor Station (Kermit, TX) Monday through Friday of this week will cut station capacity to zero, affecting deliveries at 13 points on the West Texas Lateral. WT-2 capacity will return to its normal 550,000 MMBtu/d Saturday. Also starting Monday but running through May 17, Transwestern has scheduled maintenance at the Bloomfield, Bisti, and Gallup Compressor Stations on the San Juan Lateral in New Mexico. While Bloomfield is down May 10-13, lateral capacity will be reduced from 860,000 MMBtu/d to 425,000 MMBtu/d and flows to Duke Energy’s Val Verde Plant will be zero. The Bisti outage, set for May 14-15, will limit the lateral to 675,000 MMBtu/d. May 14-17 work at Gallup will also cut lateral capacity to 675,000 MMBtu/d.

An on-again, off-again System Overrun Limitation notice by Northern Natural Gas was on for Saturday. The new SOL affecting all market-area zones was declared after the pipeline had one in effect Thursday but lifted it Friday.

The Republican-crafted energy bill has drawn Democratic fire on a host of provisions affecting the oil and natural gas industry, which they say will “raid the Treasury for billions.”

The abundance of new gas-fired power generation added to the North American electric grid will ensure that there is adequate power supply this summer and through 2011, according to the 2003 Summer Assessment by the North American Electricity Reliability Council (NERC). However, there remain several areas of concern in the near-term, including Southern Connecticut, New York City and Long Island.

Northern Natural Gas issued a System Underrun Limitation notice for Saturday and Sunday, affecting all market-area zones (ABC, D and E/F).