Downstream

Tennessee lifted Saturday evening an OFO Action Alert for meters on the 200 Line downstream of Station 249.

Friday marks a new day for Marathon Oil Corp. as an independent upstream company after completing the spinoff Thursday of its downstream businesses.

Citing lower linepack and its limited operational flexibility to manage market-area imbalances, Tennessee declared an Imbalance Warning in downstream Zones 5 and 6 Thursday. It requires all delivery point operators to keep actual daily takes out of the system equal to or less than scheduled quantities, and all receipt point operators to keep actual daily receipts into the system equal to or greater than scheduled quantities. Both conditions apply regardless of cumulative imbalance positions.

Responding to the requests of customers as oil and natural gas development continues to increase in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas, Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP) said Friday it has entered into multiple long-term agreements with shippers to provide additional transportation services, which will require new infrastructure including the construction of the Rich Eagle Ford Mainline (REM).

After enduring major supply shortfalls late last week that resulted in service curtailments for some downstream customers, El Paso did a complete turnabout during the weekend. It declared a change to normal pack condition Saturday morning and then said the situation had graduated to a high pack condition late that afternoon, where it remained Monday. El Paso was suspending all Park services and imbalance paybacks to the pipe until further notice. Maximum withdrawals from Washington Ranch storage field last week had changed into maximum injections by late Saturday night. El Paso appealed for assistance from “any customer [who] can voluntarily take more gas or reduce some supply for a period of time.” A force majeure and emergency Critical Operating Condition implemented during the cold weather last week had been canceled Saturday and were not replaced by any similar actions related to the new high-linepack situation.

Demand exceeding capacity has resulted in a linepack loss downstream of Stations 245 and 321, Tennessee said, prompting it to issue Critical Day 1 OFOs for all LMS-PA Balancing Parities in Zones 5 and 6 effective Sunday. The OFOs will be in addition to Action Alerts implemented Friday in those zones along with one in Zone 4, Tennessee said.

Tennessee said due to the anticipated return of colder weather to its market area, an OFO Action Alert will be implemented Friday for all Balancing Parties in downstream Zones 4, 5 and 6. They will be required to maintain an actual daily flow rate not exceeding 2% of scheduled quantities or 500 Dth, whichever is greater, for underdeliveries into the system and overtakes from the system.

In anticipation of valve section 313-1 to 314-1 being placed back in service Friday afternoon, Tennessee said it was lifting the OFO Action Alert in downstream market Zones 5 and 6 that morning. Due to the Bear Creek storage field test and linepack conditions, the Action Alert OFO will remain in effect in zones 0, L, 1, 2, 3 and 4 for all Balancing Parties until further notice, Tennessee said.

Tennessee, which had lifted an OFO Action Alert for downstream segments (Zones 2-6) of its system Sunday afternoon (see Daily GPI, May 5), removed it for production-area Zones 0, 1 and L Wednesday. The pipeline also said it was rescinding restrictions on storage, Park and Loan service and imbalance paybacks.