Afternoon

Tuesday was slated to be all about oil at IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates’ (CERA) CERAWeek 2010 in Houston. But ConocoPhillips CEO Jim Mulva, who keynoted the afternoon speech, was all about natural gas.

Tennessee lifted a Critical Day 2 OFO at the start of Wednesday’s gas day, but that afternoon it said that due to colder temperatures and in order to maintain linepack, a Critical Day 1 OFO would become effective Friday until further notice in Zones 0, 1, L and 2 (see the bulletin board for details). Tennessee said it will continue to monitor Zones 3, 4, 5 and 6, and implement an OFO in those zones if necessary. The pipeline ended a force majeure late Tuesday evening at Station 47.

Three years late and $10 million over budget, the Joint Review Panel for the proposed Mackenzie Gas Project (MGP) released its report Wednesday afternoon.

Tennessee said Wednesday afternoon it had identified a leak on the Fidelity Line 8A-300 lateral located at Main Line Valve 8 near Victoria, TX. Two meters were required to shut in until further notice, the pipeline said. It added that shipper nominations there were allowed to remain in place for Wednesday’s gas day but must be reduced to zero effecitve with Evening Cycle nominations for Thursday.

The tug-of-war between natural gas futures bears and bulls continued into December on Tuesday as the January contract traded in a 23.2-cent range between $4.659 in the morning and $4.891 in the afternoon before closing out the regular session at $4.762, down 8.6 cents from Monday’s finish.

November natural gas futures traders on Monday continued to knock on the $5 resistance door to no avail as the contract reached a high of $4.972 in afternoon trade before closing out the regular session at $4.880, up 11 cents from Friday’s finish.

Friday afternoon Enterprise Products Partners LP was awaiting word from federal authorities on whether it could flow gas on a bypass of a Gulf of Mexico (GOM) platform that was damaged when a piece of equipment exploded and caused a fire late Tuesday.

Friday afternoon Enterprise Products Partners LP was awaiting word from federal authorities on whether it could flow gas on a bypass of a Gulf of Mexico (GOM) platform that was damaged last week when a piece of equipment exploded and caused a fire.

A nitrogen release during testing of a segment of Midcontinent Express Pipeline (MEP) in Mississippi Wednesday afternoon killed one worker and sent three to the hospital with “critical” injuries, according to the state’s Emergency Management Agency and a partner in the project.