Declared

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez Thursday declared a state of emergency due to natural gas service outages across the state, ordering all nonessential personnel to stay home. Temperatures in Albuquerque Thursday night were forecast to go as low as 9 degrees.

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.

CIG declared a Strained Operating Condition (SOC) effective Monday until further notice. Service area forecasts indicate subzero temperatures, CIG said, “resulting in planned maximum withdrawals from storage.” See the bulletin board for details on SOC conditions.

Tennessee declared a force majeure event of an unspecified nature Friday for the 26-inch diameter 523M-100 line south of Cocodrie, LA. Tennessee said it has isolated the pipe section and is in the process of lowering the pressure for further analysis. Five Ship Shoal and two South Pelto meters were required to shut in, but Tennessee said it is allowing associated nominations to remain in place at this time.

Pennsylvania’s shale plays “are an incredible opportunity” for the job-starved state, according to incoming Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley, who declared that he and Gov. Tom Corbett “will send a message that Pennsylvania is open for business.”

In anticipation of lower-than-normal temperatures continuing on its system, Northern Natural Gas declared a System Overrun Limitation (SOL) in all market-area zones for Saturday through Monday. However, the pipeline said an earlier notice about a Friday SOL had been inadvertently posted and no SOL will be in effect that day.

Following up on a day-earlier warning, Florida Gas Transmission declared an Overage Alert Day Wednesday, saying below-freezing temperatures were forecast in its Florida market area in the next two nights. The tolerance for negative daily imbalances was set at 20%.

Arkansas should increase its severance tax rate on natural gas production, including production from the Fayetteville Shale, to help pay for road repairs in gas producing areas, said Sheffield Nelson, former CEO of Arkla Inc., the state’s largest gas company. Nelson was among those who pushed for the state’s last severance tax increase three years ago.

Pacific Gas and Electric declared a systemwide Stage 2 high-inventory OFO on its California Gas Transmission system for Saturday, setting penalties of $1/Dth for exceeding a 5% tolerance on positive daily imbalances.