Damaged

Although Southern Natural Gas recently completed repairs to all of its facilities that were damaged last year by Hurricane Ivan (see Daily GPI, July 27), it noted Thursday that several receipt points sustained damage to third-party facilities that interconnect with its system and remain offline. It listed the points as Mississippi Canyon 20 and Main Pass 288, 296, 151 and 72. The return of those points to service is dependent upon third parties completing repairs to their facilities, Southern said. Shippers and poolers should contact the operators of the affected receipt points to determine the status of any such repairs. In addition, the Main Pass 293 receipt point has been abandoned due to Ivan damages, and Southern said it understands that repairs will not be made there.

The Hurricane Ivan-damaged Petronius platform in the Gulf of Mexico has been returned to service and is currently producing 53,000 boe/d — about 75% of its pre-storm rate, according to Marathon Oil Corp. and ChevronTexaco Corp., co-owners. Efforts now are underway to ramp up to pre-storm production by the end of this month.

Gulf of Mexico producers and pipeline companies continued to make progress Tuesday repairing infrastructure damaged by Hurricane Ivan. The Minerals Management Service (MMS) said 22 companies reported that nine manned platforms and two rigs were still evacuated and 1,735.8 MMcf/d of gas and 453,092 bbl/d of oil were still shut in. Cumulative production shut-ins now stand at 67.861 Bcf of gas and 15.3 million bbl of oil.

North America’s damaged energy trading industry appears to be on the mend at mid-year 2004, as industry players old and new realize the fundamental need for risk management. Some of the names that figured prominently three years ago as the merchant sector began to collapse still remain in NGI’s Top 20 North American Gas Marketer Ranking. However, some shakeout continues as new players with substantial financial wherewithal step forward.

Affected by news late Thursday of damaged and missing rigs and platforms discovered in the Gulf of Mexico (see related story), natural gas futures on Friday morning headed toward, and then through the all-important psychological $5 resistance level. October futures hit a high on the day of $5.27 as of 1:16 p.m. (EDT), a 55.1 cent premium over Thursday’s settle.

Florida Gas Transmission (FGT) said compressor station 12 in Munson, FL, was damaged by high winds. While staff is en route to the station to assist with repairs, damage to roads and bridges have slowed down travel time. For Friday’s gas day, FGT will be scheduling volumes up to 1.5 Bcf/d into the market area. Scheduled volumes into the market area have been about 2 Bcf/d for the past couple of days. If the damage is repaired overnight, FGT will determine if scheduled volumes can be brought up above the 1.5 Bcf/d. The pipeline had an overage alert day on Thursday with a 2% tolerance. Demand on the system continues to be high, while supply remains tight. FGT continues to experienced further decline in receipt gas in Zones 2 and 3. Total system linepack is very low.

North America’s damaged energy trading industry appears to be on the mend at mid-year 2004, as industry players old and new realize the fundamental need for risk management. Some of the names that figured prominently three years ago as the merchant sector began to collapse still remain in NGI’s Top 20 North American Gas Marketer Ranking. However, some shakeout continues as new players with substantial financial wherewithal step forward.

Piping on the Bay Marchand 5 platform offshore southeastern Louisiana was damaged during Hurricane Lili, Tennessee said. A jackup rig is scheduled to be on site Dec. 18 to perform repairs that are expected to last eight days. Physical flow will be suspended Dec. 18-25 at the following meters: Bay Marchand 24, Grand Isle 47, South Timbalier 22, Grand Isle 48J, South Timbalier 54/55E, and South Timbalier 23. A second Bay Marchand meter will be affected, but its block number was not identified.

Nearly two years after the fatal explosion on El Paso Natural Gas, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued a series of factual reports last Thursday that appeared to confirm federal investigators’ initial suspicions of substantial internal corrosion as the cause, or one of the causes, of the blast that killed 12 members of an extended family in August 2000.