Exceed

Domestic natural gas reserves increased for the eighth straight year in 2006 and now exceed 205 Tcf — 1 Tcf higher than in 2005 and their highest level since 1978 — according to preliminary findings by the American Gas Association (AGA).

Domestic natural gas reserves increased for the eighth straight year in 2006 and now exceed 205 Tcf — 1 Tcf higher than in 2005 and their highest level since 1978 — according to preliminary findings by the American Gas Association (AGA). The AGA, which issued its report Wednesday, based its numbers on a representative sample of 30 natural gas reserves holders, which it said account for more than half of total U.S. booked reserves and slightly less than half of all U.S. gas production.

Tennessee Gas lifted its operational flow order action alert in its market zones (0, L, 1, 2 and 3), but maintained the alert in the market area (zones 4, 5 and 6). Actual daily flow rates cannot exceed 2% or 500 Dth, whichever is greater, of scheduled quantities or else the shipper will pay a 22 cents/Dth penalty.

El Paso set an imbalance tolerance of 4% in declaring a systemwide Strained Operating Condition Thursday. “Underperforming supplies in combination with takes that exceed scheduled quantities have significantly reduced linepack,” the pipeline said, adding that its Washington Ranch Storage facility is at maximum withdrawal rates. El Paso said it will place performance caps on nonperforming supplies, and will declare a Critical Operating Condition if the situation does not improve.

PG&E kept in place a high-inventory operational flow order with a 5% tolerance on Wednesday. The tolerance is scheduled to be 10% on Thursday with inventories expected to exceed the 4.5 Bcf normal operating limit. The composite temperature in PG&E’s territory has been around 59 degrees compared to a historical average of 66 degrees.

Pacific Gas & Electric declared a systemwide Stage 2 high-inventory OFO for Saturday and said penalties of $1/Dth will be assessed to shippers who exceed a 5% tolerance for negative daily imbalances.

Southern Natural Gas is implementing an OFO Type 6 Thursday for short imbalances on its contiguous system. Tiered penalties of $1-15/Dth will be assessed for negative imbalances that exceed a threshold of 2% or 200 dekatherms. Penalties will not apply to long imbalances.

Due to high linepack, Tennessee declared a Critical Day 1 OFO, effective Saturday until further notice, for all LMS-PA, LMS-MA and LMS PL balancing parties in Zone 0. Affected parties who exceed a tolerance of 2% of scheduled quantities or 1,000 dekatherms, whichever is greater, will be assessed penalties of $5/Dth plus the applicable Regional Daily Spot Price, Tennessee said. “In the event the Critical Day 1 OFO is not sufficient to maintain the operational integrity of the system, Tennessee may be required to issue a Critical Day 2 OFO or an OFO Balancing Alert,” it added.

Strong gas pipeline results and the performance of the other business segments at Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP) produced a 13% increase in Kinder Morgan Inc.’s (KMI) earnings per share from continuing operations before certain items to 95 cents (or $116.9 million). Through the first six months of the year, Kinder Morgan Inc. reported a 17% increase in earnings per share from continuing operations.