Cautioned

A Gulf South Pipeline official last Tuesday cautioned FERC against making changes in gas quality and interchangeability specifications that would severely affect the composition of natural gas, saying this could further restrict an already tight gas supply situation. Meanwhile, the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA) last week called for the Commission to adopt national gas quality and interchangeability standards for natural gas flowing through the interstate gas pipeline system.

A Gulf South Pipeline official on Tuesday cautioned FERC against making changes in gas quality and interchangeability specifications that would severely affect the composition of natural gas, saying this could further restrict an already tight gas supply situation.

Northwest cautioned shippers of the possibility of a deficiency day being declared during the upcoming four-day shutdown of the Clay Basin storage facility. Along with work scheduled by Clay Basin operator Questar, Northwest will be installing a new separator at its Clay Basin interconnect Wednesday and Thursday. Upon completion of the installation, Questar will perform a meter calibration beginning Friday and lasting through Saturday. There will also be no physical injections or withdrawals during all four days. “Due to the length of the combined outages, it is unlikely that Northwest will be able to mitigate any impacts to customer nominations,” the pipeline said. “Therefore, Clay Basin injection and withdrawal nominations must net to zero at the end of every cycle for gas days April 27 and 28. If primary nominations exceed a net of zero, a deficiency day will be declared and nominations will be cut accordingly.” Clay Basin is expected to return to full design capacity for Sunday’s gas day.

Although it cautioned that the proponents can develop remedies that would cause it to change its mind, the staff of the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) Friday filed its initial opposition to the proposed sale of Tucson-based utility holding company, UniSource Energy Corp., to a private investment group that includes three major Wall Street investment banking firms.

Dominion activated an OFO Friday for customers behind six New York utilities downstream of its Boom and Stateline facilities, as it had cautioned might be necessary in an OFO Advisory issued Thursday (see Daily GPI, Jan. 9). No OFO was issued for several Mid-Atlantic utilities that had been listed in a separate OFO Advisory.

Northwest cautioned shippers Tuesday “to purchase adequate gas supplies and not to draft the pipeline during the upcoming weekend.” It went on to note that market-area weather had been cold for the previous few days, and that “extremely cold temperatures” were predicted to begin Sunday (Jan. 4). For last Tuesday’s gas day, withdrawals from Jackson Prairie storage were twice as high as scheduled nominations, Northwest said. If system drafting continues, “Northwest will be forced to evaluate customer-specific and/or general entitlements in order to stop any drastic decline in our Jackson Prairie balancing gas.”

More than a month after ending its last Overage Alert Day notice (see Daily GPI, March 25), Florida Gas Transmission cautioned market-area customers Wednesday that one might be issued for the May 1 gas day. “Currently FGT’s total linepack is now below targeted operational levels,” the pipeline said, and “FGT has experienced market area overburns during the past two days.”

El Paso lifted Friday an Overpull Penalty Alert notice that had been posted Tuesday afternoon. However, it cautioned that with a San Juan Crossover project involving installation of pigging facilities on Lines 1300 and 1301 scheduled for Dec. 1-2, 300 MMcf/d of system supply would be unavailable over the weekend and the alert would be reinstated if necessary. El Paso said concerns about cold weather, low linepack and other operational issues had caused rumors that the Crossover work might be canceled, although no such statement had been issued by the pipeline. Because El Paso and upstream producers had invested substantial efforts and resources in preparing for the maintenance, “rescheduling would be very difficult. The operational concerns have lessened considerably, and although the overall system is not in ideal condition for a shutdown of this scale, the shutdown will occur as scheduled.”

When natural gas prices were sky high a year ago, the “window looked wide open” for the long awaited Alaska natural gas pipe, which would carry supplies from the North Slope to the Lower 48. Months later, however, the announcements from producers are practically nil and President Bush’s energy policy proposal to open up more areas for drilling is barely moving. The abundant North Slope natural gas remains frozen, in more ways than one, and whether it will actually move through a pipe at some point in this decade remain questionable.