Conditions

Citing “colder than normal weather conditions and current pipeline operations,” Panhandle Eastern posted an operational alert Monday restricting flow at delivery points east of Tuscola, IL. For shippers under Rate Schedules EFT and EIT, flows will be limited during any hour of the gas day to one-sixteenth of the total daily gas nominated at the delivery point. For Rate Schedule FT customers, no more than one-twenty-fourth of the daily total can be delivered during any hour of the gas day.

Algonquin will lift Wednesday a Critical Notice that was posted Jan. 20. It anticipates that operating conditions will allow a limited amount of due-shipper imbalance make-up gas to be scheduled.

Despite overbought conditions and forecasts calling for warming temperatures, natural gas futures finished the week on a positive note Friday as traders bid the market higher in sympathy with cash prices that remain at a premium to futures. There also was apprehension of the release of potentially bullish storage data Thursday. However, the gains were a winter-month-only phenomenon, as advances in February and March were in sharp contrast to losses throughout the rest of the contracts.

Alleviating overbought conditions, natural gas futures sifted lower Friday as traders took profits ahead of the three-day holiday weekend. By checking down to its $5.44 low for the session, the February contract filled in a key level on the charts. It closed at $5.536, down 10.9 cents for the session. Estimated volume was light in Friday’s abbreviated session.

MRT said a System Protection Warning will become effective at the start of Friday’s gas day. The warning’s conditions are identical to those of one posted on Christmas Eve (see Daily GPI, Dec. 24, 2002).

Mirant’s liquidity position improved last week after it completed the sale of a one-third stake in the Shajiao C power plant in China to China Resources Power Holding Co. Ltd. for $300 million. Proceeds from the sale increased its liquidity to $1.4 billion and allowed Mirant to eliminate a $254 million loan at its Asian holding company.

MRT posted a System Protection Warning that becomes effective with the start of Tuesday’s gas day. It is subject to these conditions: MRT will not schedule any Main Line IT, AOR or imbalance volumes for delivery north of Glendale, AR; firm volumes will be limited to their primary direction of flow; MRT is not accepting short imbalance positions; and shippers may not nominate supply from existing long imbalance positions. Saying it has capacity available on the East Line, MRT urged shippers who were relying on Main Line IT, AOR and/or imbalance volumes to re-source supply to the East Line or reduce applicable delivery volumes in order to avoid customer-specific OFOs.

Saying it was experiencing peak day operating conditions Tuesday and that weather and load forecasts indicated this would continue through at least Wednesday, Algonquin will restrict forward haul Authorized Overrun, AIT and due-shipper makeup volumes for Wednesday’s gas day. “The need for any additional restrictions will be evaluated after the timely cycle,” the pipeline added. Later Tuesday afternoon, Algonquin reported experiencing an unscheduled outage at its Southeast Compressor Station affecting mainline throughput. Thus it added “the majority of secondary firm nominations scheduled on a forward haul basis” through Southeast to the previously announced constraints for Wednesday, saying only nominations for incremental Primary No-Notice service will be accepted.

Effective with the start of Tuesday’s gas day, MRT is posting a System Protection Warning subject to these conditions: (1) MRT will not schedule any Main Line IT, AOR (authorized overrun) or imbalance volumes for delivery north of Glendale, AR; (2) firm volumes will be limited to their primary direction of flow; (3) MRT is not accepting short imbalance positions; and (4) shippers may not nominate supply from existing long imbalance positions. Saying it has capacity available on the East Line, MRT urged shippers who were relying on Main Line IT, AOR and/or imbalance volumes to re-source supply to the East Line or reduce applicable delivery volumes in order to avoid OFOs.