Cause

Emerging high-volume natural gas shale plays may create a bubble in gas supply and cause pipeline supply bottlenecks in the Midcontinent, but their addition to U.S. supplies is vital to offset constrained Canadian imports and a lag in liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies, an energy industry veteran said this week.

Waning La Nina conditions and a continued warm water cycle in the Atlantic Basin will cause the number of storms to be slightly above average and increase the chance that storms will hit the United States during the upcoming Atlantic hurricane season, according to chief long-range forecaster Joe Bastardi and his AccuWeather.com team.

It’s not exactly going to be “warm” in northern market areas Friday, but the fact that it will be “warmer” was enough to cause prices to fall at all points Thursday. The previous day’s 1.2-cent decline by March futures added a small amount of negative guidance for the cash market Thursday.

An early morning fire Wednesday closed Williams Partners LP’s Ignacio gas processing plant, located near Durango CO. The cause of the fire is unknown and is under investigation. Williams said the fire began in a cooling tower, damaging it and a few adjacent buildings before being extinguished. No injuries were reported. The Ignacio plant is part of Williams Four Corners LLC, which is owned by Williams Partners. Approximately 100 MMcfe/d of the plant’s normal 450 MMcfe/d production capacity has been rerouted to other facilities in the San Juan Basin. In addition to the Ignacio plant, the Four Corners gathering system is connected to the Kutz and Lybrook natural gas processing plants and the Milagro and Esperanza natural gas treating plants in northwestern New Mexico. The Four Corners system’s normal volumes are in excess of 1.5 Bcfe/d. Contacted Thursday afternoon, the company said it has not yet estimated how long it will take to repair and reopen the plant.

Several maintenance projects will cause these reductions in El Paso’s North Mainline capacity (from a base of 2,276 MMcf/d) through the end of the month: Oct. 20, 91 MMcf/d; Oct. 21, 20 MMcf/d; Oct. 22-24, 71 MMcf/d; Oct. 25-26, 104 MMcf/d; Oct. 27-28, 348 MMcf/d; Oct. 29, 245 MMcf/d; and Oct. 30-31, 270 MMcf/d. See the bulletin board for details of the maintenance.

The growing strength of the current La Nina event will cause above-average activity during the final two months of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season and could extend the season as well, according to weather forecasters at Colorado State University (CSU).

The growing strength of the current La Nina event will cause above-average activity during the final two months of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, and could extend the hurricane season as well, according to weather forecasters at Colorado State University (CSU).

A Category 5 hurricane that passes through the heart of Gulf of Mexico energy platforms could cause producer damage and output losses of more than $65 billion, according to an expert on extreme-risk modeling.

EnCana Corp.’s Deep Panuke natural gas project off the coast of Nova Scotia is “not likely” to cause any adverse environmental effects and has been sent to federal regulators for a final ruling, Canada’s environment minister said Wednesday.