Discovering

Australian producer BHP Billiton has begun assessing how to repair its Neptune tension leg platform (TLP) in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM) after discovering “structural anomalies” last week.

Northern Natural Gas, operator of the Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System (MOPS), declared force majeure on MOPS Friday afternoon after discovering a leak near the Matagorda Island 686 C platform. All receipt and delivery points were shut in until further notice, Northern said. It was preparing for a restart of MOPS operations this week following a June 12 shutdown of the system (see Daily GPI, July 27).

Columbia Gulf reported discovering a leak on its 20-inch line upstream of the Eugene Island 250 platform in the Block 264 area. It said Eugene Island 331B, 314B, 314C, 314A and 271, where Columbia Gulf and Tennessee both have meters, and Eugene Island 294A, 338A, 315A and 316A, where Tennessee has the sole meter, will be required to shut in once repairs begin. No timetable for the repair startup had been set as of Friday afternoon, a spokesman said.

Berry Petroleum Co. is paying about $5 million to gain a 50% working interest in 345,000 prospective acres in the Denver Basin of eastern Colorado, western Kansas and southwestern Nebraska from Bill Barrett Corp. The two companies plan to jointly explore and develop the shallow Niobrara gas assets on the acreage, which expands the program Berry started late last year in the area.

Florida Gas Transmission declared a force majeure after discovering a pinhole leak on its 22-inch mainline downstream of Compressor Station 4 in Galveston County, TX. While it investigates and repairs the leak, which a spokeswoman said was expected to take more than 24 hours as of Thursday afternoon, FGT ceased flowing any gas through this section and scheduled volumes through the station down to zero for Thursday’s gas day and until further notice. That affected all supplies at a “handful” of upstream receipt points since the 22-inch line is a single line through the station, the spokeswoman said, and FGT was asking shippers at those points to re-source supplies elsewhere.

NGPL reported discovering a gas quality problem at its El Paso-Washita receipt point in Washita County, OK. Effective with Saturday’s gas day, NGPL was not scheduling any transport volumes at the point until further notice.

PG&E Gas Transmission-Northwest (GTN) reported discovering internal problems with the B unit at Station 6, requiring that the unit be withdrawn from service. As a result, Kingsgate capacity was restricted to 2,400 MMcf/d in Thursday’s Intraday 1 scheduling cycle until further notice.

Sonat reported discovering a small leak in its 8-inch Pointe a la Hache line in southeastern Louisiana. Sonat declared a force majeure and shut in the Pointe a la Hache receiving station. Nominations through the line ceased to be scheduled Friday until completion of the repairs, which are expected to take about five days.

Northern Natural Gas declared a force majeure after discoveringa leak in its 20-inch Plymouth to Mitchell line in the PermianBasin area of West Texas. Teams isolated the leak, NNG saidWednesday, and the approximate downtime was expected to be twodays. Flow was scheduled to zero at the Shell Tippett, Burlington,Marathon Yates and Southern Union receipt points.