Experiencing

Westcoast reported experiencing “some souring issues” at the McMahon Gas Plant. The plant was at zero throughput as of early Friday afternoon but was in the process of ramping operations back up, the pipeline said. Customers were not asked to adjust their McMahon business, but “upstream customers will experience higher pressures as we recover from this event,” it added.

Experiencing a decade-long annual growth of 5% again last year, Las Vegas, NV-based Southwest Gas Corp. reported decreased consolidated earnings, compared to the previous year, for its growing distribution natural gas utility operations in Nevada, Arizona and the eastern fringe areas of California. Southwest is the major natural gas utility in both Nevada and Arizona, two of the fastest growing areas in the nation .

Transwestern said Sunday it declared force majeure after experiencing a mechanical failure on Unit #1 at Crawford Compressor Station on the West Texas Lateral. Station capacity was reduced to about 32,000 MMBtu/d from the normal 60,000 MMBtu/d until the unit can be replaced. A replacement compressor will be available for service Thursday, Transwestern said, adding that it is working with customers to reroute affected gas to other receipt points.

Southern Natural Gas reported experiencing an unscheduled outage on its 14-inch diameter Chattanooga Branch Line near the Alabama/Georgia border Monday. Personnel were isolating the line so that repairs can be made Wednesday. To prepare for the outage, Southern said Tuesday it was making system adjustments to support the current level of scheduled firm and no-notice service. See the bulletin board for details.

Reporting that recent takes have been significantly below nominations, El Paso said it is experiencing “excessively high linepack” and that its Washington Ranch storage facility is injecting at maximum capacity. Urging shippers to bring their supplies into balance with their takes, the pipeline said that if the situation fails to improve, it may need to declare a Strained Operating Condition.

The spike in natural gas futures prices to record levels Thursday can be directly attributed to the fact that major energy markets are experiencing their first real winter storm of the season with sustained cold, according to Sandy “Trot” Goldfarb, one of the largest natural gas local traders.

El Paso set an imbalance threshold of 5% in declaring a systemwide Strained Operating Condition (SOC) Wednesday. The pipeline said it has been experiencing declining linepack as a result of takes that are in excess of scheduled quantities and underperforming receipt volumes. Linepack continues to decline despite the Washington Ranch storage facility operating at maximum withdrawal capacity, El Paso said. Prior to announcing the SOC, it said the supply shortfall in the San Juan Basin was about 400 MMcf/d.

Long-ago one of the nation’s centers for oil and natural gas production, Southern California, with today’s historically high oil and natural gas prices, is experiencing a resurgence of reworking some of its old wells, many of which are surrounded by housing and commercial development. Improved technology and the high wholesale prices have given the area’s wells a “new lease on life,” according to a report in Monday’s Los Angeles Times.

Some industry experts were wondering whether they were experiencing deja vu earlier this week as the energy futures complex once again spiked following a bullish research report produced by global investment bank Goldman Sachs. While there were those who believed the 34-page report by the market leader was largely responsible for the price spike on Tuesday, others weren’t so sure, with some noting that people are free to trade off of anything they want to.