Border

Southern California Gas has scheduled April 10-14 and April 18-20 work on Line 225 that is expected to reduce total available border delivery capacity at Wheeler Ridge. During the April 10-14 period Wheeler Ridge capacity will be reduced by 200 MMcf/d, while storage capabilities will be cut by 75 MMcf/d (injection) and 250 MMcf/d (withdrawal). The April 18-20 maintenance will cause a loss of 740 MMcf/d at Wheeler Ridge, leaving an estimated shared capacity of 140 MMcf/d to be allocated among upstream pipelines Kern River/Mojave, Pacific Gas & Electric and Occidental, based on their respective scheduled quantities from two days prior to the start of the work. “Shippers will need to consider how they wish to serve their markets on the SoCalGas system,” the giant LDC said. The Kramer Junction delivery point will still be available, but shippers should understand that it may also become constrained if nominations from other upstream pipelines into the North Desert Transmission Zone (NDTZ), of which Kramer Junction is part, increase in response to SoCalGas’ maintenance, it added.

Looking to better serve U.S. natural gas demand and open inroads for potential liquefied natural gas (LNG) sites across the border in Mexico, TransCanada Corp. said Thursday that its North Baja Pipeline LLC subsidiary has filed an application with FERC for a two-phase expansion of its existing natural gas pipeline in southern California and the construction of a new pipeline lateral in California’s Imperial Valley. The total cost of the projects is expected to be $291 million.

Southern Natural Gas reported experiencing an unscheduled outage on its 14-inch diameter Chattanooga Branch Line near the Alabama/Georgia border Monday. Personnel were isolating the line so that repairs can be made Wednesday. To prepare for the outage, Southern said Tuesday it was making system adjustments to support the current level of scheduled firm and no-notice service. See the bulletin board for details.

A FERC administrative law judge (ALJ) last Thursday certified an uncontested offer of settlement that reduces by about 20-25% the transportation rates for shippers on Iroquois Gas Transmission System’s Eastchester extension that went into service earlier this year.

Highway relocation work on Texas Eastern between Egypt Station in Arkansas and Fagus Station on the Arkansas-Missouri border, previously set for May 4-5, has been delayed due to high water in the area. The work is now scheduled for May 27-28. As a result, Texas Eastern will begin previously posted cleaning pig runs on May 4 that were originally scheduled to start on May 6, and they will continue on a daily basis through May 8. During these cleaning runs, restrictions may be required in the East Texas and/or M-1 24-inch zones.

An ally stepped forward north of the border, adding international support to the campaign for financial aid in the United States for the Alaska natural gas project.

An ally stepped forward north of the border, adding international support to the campaign for financial aid in the United States for the Alaska natural gas project.

Cutbank Ridge, a newly acquired gas play that straddles the British Columbia and Alberta border, is expected to help Calgary-based independent EnCana ultimately recover more than 4 Tcf, the company said last week. EnCana, a top leaseholder in the Canadian and U.S. Rocky Mountains, already has invested about C$500 million in exploration drilling and land sales in Cutbank Ridge, which covers nearly half a million acres.

Joining the increasing crowd of energy plant developers on North Baja beaches, Shell Mexico Tuesday announced that it received a permit from federal energy regulators in Mexico to build its proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal in North Baja, joining Sempra Energy and Marathon affiliates that also have obtained approvals from the Comision Regulatodora de Energia (CRE).