Experiencing

Cash prices were taking on a considerably more bearish tone Tuesday, with most points experiencing sizeable declines. The demand destruction from Hurricane Ike, along with generally mild to cool weather outside the interior West, was proving to have more influence on the market than the Gulf of Mexico shut-ins, which still totaled more than 6 Bcf/d.

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman Tuesday checked himself into Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston after experiencing an elevated heart rate. He is “resting comfortably” and will remain in the hospital for a few days to undergo a series of routine tests, according to a department spokeswoman. Bodman is 69.

After posting an alert about experiencing excess linepack, Pacific Gas & Electric issued a systemwide Stage 2 high-inventory OFO for Thursday. Penalties of $1/Dth were set for daily positive imbalances exceeding a 5% tolerance.

Cheyenne Plains took system flows to zero Monday after experiencing a “facility outage” at Cheyenne Plains Compressor Station during the weekend. It is not accepting nominations for deliveries to either CIG or Wyoming Interstate Co. until further notice.

Southern Natural Gas reported experiencing an unscheduled outage Friday morning at Gate 6 offshore Louisiana. Some production was shut in as a result, but based on the best information available, Southern said it would try to keep markets whole for Friday’s gas day. Damage assessment is under way, the pipeline added.

On a day when some areas were experiencing their most frigid weather in the heating season so far, expectations that considerably more moderate conditions would be in place by early this week (Dec. 11-15) forced prices lower at nearly all points Friday. The nickel-plus drop by January futures a day earlier, bearish sentiment about the latest storage report and the decline of industrial load that typically accompanies a weekend also were negative factors in the cash market.

Thursday morning’s natural gas storage report had traders experiencing a case of deja vu as the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that 77 Bcf was added to underground working gas for the week ended June 9, the identical amount of gas that was added the previous week. While the injections were the same, the market’s reaction was remarkably different as the industry had been expecting a meatier number this week. July natural gas reached a high of $7.250 on the day before settling at $7.207, up 61.7 cents on the day and $1.035 higher for the week to date.

Northern Natural Gas reported late Thursday afternoon experiencing a force majeure situation at its Bushton (KS) Compressor Station that triggered an emergency shutdown of the station. Until the station resumes operation, Northern is unable to deliver gas into the Bushton Processing Plant.

Tennessee said it is experiencing hydrocarbon dew point (HDP) temperatures in excess of its 20-degree limit upstream of Station 87 (Portland, TN) due to high levels of hydrocarbons in deliveries into the 500 Line and the limited ability of the Yscloskey Processing Plant to sufficiently process that gas. Targa Midstream, operator of the Yscloskey facility, has informed Tennessee that the plant should be back to full operation by mid to late May. As alternatives to imposing further corrective actions, Tennessee said it is exploring various short-term operational options that may allow continued flows in the affected area in a safe and reliable manner. However, Tennessee asked shippers and producers to consider what steps they may take voluntarily to conform deliveries into the 500 Line, including but not limited to seeking additional processing alternatives such as deliveries to the Toca and/or Discovery processing plants. “Tennessee strongly encourages customers to make these processing arrangements to ensure deliveries into the pipeline system will conform to Tennessee’s posted HDP limit,” the pipeline said. If HDP temperatures are not sufficiently lowered, Tennessee said it will initiate further corrective action to protect operational integrity.