Down

El Paso will take the Gallup (NM) Station’s B turbine down forsix hours today to calibrate fuel controls. Capacity out of SanJuan Basin will be reduced by 80 MMcf/d for today’s gas day only.

ANR Pipeline brought in a big gun this week to mow down theopposition to its proposed Wisconsin expansion project. It hiredformer Wisconsin Public Service Commission Chairman CharlesCicchetti, now a consultant with the Pacific Economics Group and abusiness professor at the University of Southern California, totout its project over others, particularly the competing GuardianPipeline.

A holding pattern developed Thursday at the majority of tradingpoints, which were flat to up or down a penny or two for an overallreading of flatness. The market was hardly a model of consistency,though, as price movement ranged from about two cents lower in theRockies to increases of about a nickel or more for the Appalachianpipes and Northeast citygates. High temperatures in the mid 80sThursday in the dry Northeast were a close match for those in therain-drenched South.

Prices failed to move much more than a penny or two up or downMonday at most eastern points, but power generation load was strongenough to support moderate upticks in the West. Trading activitywas slow for both June swing and July gas, said a marketer who sawGulf Coast pipes come off 3-4 cents from their early-morning highs.Cash was essentially waiting for something to happen, he added,”because neither it [cash market] nor the screen is going anywherethese days.”

El Paso will have the “B” Plant at Williams (AZ) Station downfor maintenance June 21-23, reduing North Mainline capacity in SanJuan Basin by 100 MMcf/d. From June 28 through July 7, individualWilliams “B” compressors will be off-line, cutting North Mainlinecapacity by 25 MMcf/d June 28-July 2 and by 40 MMcf/d July 3-7.

If government predictions are correct, Gulf of Mexico producerscould be shutting in more rigs and shuttling more workers to safetythis hurricane season than last.

FERC shot down one major Midwest-to-Northeast pipeline projectyesterday but gave another competing project a final green light.The $447 million Vector Pipeline emerged victorious, receivingFERC’s final approval and a presidential permit in a draft order,while the $400 million TriState Pipeline was sent back to thedrawing board to redesign the pipeline-lease portion of itsproposal.

El Paso will shut down its Blanco (NM) Plant Monday forscheduled maintenance. Several other facilities on the San JuanCrossover and North Mainline also will have maintenance. Because atotal Blanco outage will last only half a day, the net reduction ofSan Juan Basin supply Monday will be 715 MMcf/d. Downtime of the Cand D units May 18-19 and of the D unit May 20-26 will causereductions of 500 MMcf/d and 270 MMcf/d respectively.

El Paso’s Caprock (NM) Station is down for emergency maintenancethat began Tuesday and will last at least through March 31. Afterthat point one of the two compressor units should be available, thepipeline said. San Juan Crossover capacity is being limited toabout 550 MMcf/d. El Paso encouraged shippers to use theTranswestern interconnect at Window Rock (AZ) to maximize flowsfrom San Juan Basin.