Entitlement

Due to current capabilities, ANR said it is limiting injections into storage facilities to firm entitlement service only. “Effective immediately, no injections into DDS, MBS or overrun into FSS will be allowed until further notice,” ANR said.

Northwest said it will lift the Stage II (8% tolerance) Overrun Entitlement for receiving parties located north of Plymouth Compressor Station Friday. Northwest continued to advise customers not to draft its system north of Kemmerer Compressor Station in order to preserve north-end balancing gas needed to meet upcoming winter demand and help mitigate OFOs.

Northwest lifted its remaining Overrun Entitlement (see Daily GPI, Jan. 18) Saturday. The pipeline thanked customers for securing more Canadian supply and encouraged the continuation of this trend in order to avoid OFOs.

Northwest lifted Wednesday its Stage III entitlement (see Daily GPI, Dec. 13) due to moderate weather forecasts for most of its Pacific Northwest market area. Northwest also has restored about 170,000 Dth/d of delivery point capacity to CIG at their Green River, WY interconnect and was accepting nomination requests for the Timely cycle on Tuesday. The interconnect was shut down earlier this month following a nearby rupture on a Northwest lateral (see Daily GPI, Dec. 9). The associated declared deficiency period has ended, Northwest said, adding that it will provide updates on its plans to restore the interconnect’s full design capacity of 271,400 Dth/d as information becomes available.

Northwest declared a Stage III entitlement with 13% tolerance for overruns for receiving parties located north of the Kemmerer (WY) Compressor Station, effective Friday until further notice. The pipeline noted that weather in its market area “is extremely cold and predicted to remain cold over the next week” and that due to extreme drafting its Jackson Prairie storage account had dropped from 2.5 Bcf to 1.7 Bcf, “even with the assistance of a few customers realigning their supplies.”

Effective Wednesday, Northwest is lifting a customer-specific Declared Overrun Entitlement Period for overtakes that was issued Nov. 4 (see Daily GPI, Nov. 5). Thanking customers for their cooperation, Northwest said its Jackson Prairie Storage account “is returning to adequate winter storage levels and Kemmerer’s north throughput flow is being reduced.”

Due to high acid gas volumes at the inlet of Pine River Gas Plant impacting some shippers’ firm entitlement/production, Westcoast reduced the plant’s acid gas capacity volume Thursday morning to about 91.4 MMcf/d until further notice.

Northwest issued a recall advisory to shippers Wednesday and gave notice of a potential OFO and Declared Stage II (8%) Overrun Entitlement. “Net scheduled quantities have regularly exceeded the available physical capacity through the Kemmerer [WY] Compressor Station, even with the additional capacity provided by portable compression,” the pipeline’s bulletin board said. “Forward pricing does not indicate that this overscheduling pressure will decrease during the summer. Northwest has been accommodating the excess quantities by injecting gas into Clay Basin and withdrawing gas from Jackson Prairie. Heavy drafting during the first two weeks of April coupled with the overscheduling since February have depleted Northwest’s Jackson Prairie inventories.” The pipeline plans to use a portion of physical capacity through Kemmerer to realign its balancing storage gas and to move fuel gas as required. If scheduled volumes continue to exceed remaining available physical capacity through Kemererer, the OFO will be issued to be become effective next Tuesday, Northwest said. Because the potential for drafting increases during an OFO, it will concurrently entitle its system for overruns. See the bulletin board for further details.

Northwest noted that despite putting its system into entitlementand issuing a realignment OFO, primary scheduled volumes throughKemmerer (WY) Station remain greater than physical capacity.Therefore, starting today the pipeline is invoking a “must-flowOFO” provision of its tariff. Until further notice, shippers withprimary corridor rights southbound through Kemmerer are required toflow up to 10% of their contract demand from receipt points northof Kemmerer to delivery points south of Kemmerer or take some othermutually agreeable action to alleviate the Kemmerer capacityproblem. See the Northwest bulletin board for details.