Critical

Wastewater management continues to be the focal point of the debate over Marcellus Shale drilling in Pennsylvania.

FERC last week launched a staff inquiry into the energy disruptions that occurred across the Southwest early this month as a result of a severe cold snap that affected energy operations from Southern California to Texas from the wellhead to the burnertip (see NGI, Feb. 7).

A bill moving through the Pennsylvania General Assembly would give state regulators more oversight over intrastate pipelines, but the sponsor of the legislation wants to expand it to include gathering lines in remote areas that aren’t currently regulated.

El Paso, which had previously declared a Strained Operating Condition due to low linepack, late Wednesday issued a drafting-based emergency Critical Operating Condition with a 3% negative imbalance tolerance. “Based on current supply shortfalls caused by extreme cold temperatures and power outages in the production areas…and current demand on the delivery side of the system, [El Paso] does not expect conditions to improve over the next 24 hours,” the pipeline said.

Transwestern issued a Critical Notice saying a low-linepack Alert Day will be in effect for all of its system Thursday. Operators who take more than scheduled at a delivery point or provide less than scheduled at a receipt point will be subject to penalty. Transwestern also cited several locations where it is seeing unsatisfactory supply performance; see the bulletin board for details.

Demand exceeding capacity has resulted in a linepack loss downstream of Stations 245 and 321, Tennessee said, prompting it to issue Critical Day 1 OFOs for all LMS-PA Balancing Parities in Zones 5 and 6 effective Sunday. The OFOs will be in addition to Action Alerts implemented Friday in those zones along with one in Zone 4, Tennessee said.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) on Thursday elected a new leadership team to helm the executive committee and announced the addition of almost three dozen associate member companies.

Technology will be a “critical enabler” in meeting the world’s growing energy needs, ExxonMobil Corp. CEO Rex Tillerson said Thursday.

Technology will be a “critical enabler” in meeting the world’s growing energy needs, ExxonMobil Corp. CEO Rex Tillerson said Thursday.