Damage

Florida Gas Transmission (FGT) and Texas Eastern Transmission (Tetco) both reported natural gas pipeline damage on Tuesday. In both cases, there were no injuries and no fires, but gas flows were impacted.

Northern Natural Gas declared force majeure at its Hugoton (KS) Compressor Station as a result of tornado damage Thursday night. The entire station was shut down, affecting about 50,000 MMBtu/d at the Hugoton N&S, Stevens County #4 and Stevens County #6 points. NNG estimated that a return to service would occur “sometime in the p.m.” Saturday (May 17).

CIG declared a force majeure Monday evening after experiencing third-party damage to the Big Horn Lateral in northern Wyoming (the bulletin board notice incorrectly identified it as the Wind River Lateral, a spokesman said). The lateral was shut in north of Lost Cabin Station between Block Valves 7 and 8. The outage required that volumes be cut to zero at Elk Basin Station for Tuesday’s gas day. CIG anticipated that line repairs would be completed in time to resume normal operations by Cycle 4 nominations Tuesday (about 8 p.m. MDT).

In the continuing saga of what has been described as “one of the world’s biggest ever corporate failures,” Enron Corp.’s European arm filed for protection from its creditors Thursday, while major energy industry players rushed to reassure investors that their individual exposures to the troubles of Enron Corp. were minimal. The companies attempted to boost confidence in the energy sector as Enron stock dropped another 25 cents to close at 36 cents Thursday on trades of nearly 265 million shares.

El Paso said the Pecos River Station’s #2 turbine will remain down longer than planned due to damage discovered during an ongoing overhaul. Capacity through Pecos River will be cut by 60 MMcf/d through Nov. 20.

Enron Corp. stock last week saw some of its worst days of trading in more than a year following the news that President and CEO Jeffrey K. Skilling, who was credited with much of the energy giant’s successes over the past decade, had resigned. Before the week ended, Chairman Kenneth L. Lay had called a company-wide meeting to assure employees that the company remained on solid financial footing, while senior management officials met with financial analysts in New York to convince them that no other surprises lay ahead.

Northern Natural Gas completed repairs and restored serviceWednesday after damage by a third party caused a force majeuresituation Tuesday on its East Leg. Line pressure was reduced andservice was curtailed temporarily downstream of Belleville(Lafayette County, WI).

Ohio and Pennsylvania landowners have called on FERC to impose adeadline by which the multi-state Independence Pipeline and ANRPipeline’s SupplyLink expansion must submit long-term contracts tojustify the need for their respective projects.

Maybe it was because it was Thanksgiving, but FERC was in a veryunderstanding mood last week. It agreed Natural Gas Pipeline Co.of America (NGPL) had failed to justify the need for a proposedtariff change that would hold a “party tendering gas” liable forpipeline facility damages that are caused by lower-quality gasentering NGPL’s system. The Commission, however, didn’t reject theproposal.