Flow

Northwest lifted Thursday the Recall Advisory along with the contract-specific Realignment and Must-flow OFOs that had been implemented Wednesday on flows through the Plymouth South Constraint Point (see Daily GPI, Dec. 5). “Due to shippers’ voluntary cooperation in realigning supplies north of Plymouth, the primary firm nominations north through Plymouth have declined to a level Northwest can physically accommodate,” the pipeline said.

FERC is seeking industry comments by Dec. 14 solely on the issue of how a master limited partnership’s (MLP) growth should be projected for the purposes of the discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis.

Pacific Gas & Electric stepped up the intensity of its Operational Flow Orders, issuing a systemwide Stage 3 high-inventory OFO for Saturday carrying penalties of $5/Dth for exceeding a 5% tolerance on positive daily imbalances. Normally PG&E’s high-inventory OFOs are Stage 2 with $1 penalties.

With natural gas flow constraints out of the Rocky Mountains continuing to ease, the region once again dominated headlines on Monday as half of NGI’s points in the region recorded $1-plus gains. Despite near-record natural gas storage levels and the lack of any immediate storm threat to the Gulf of Mexico, cash prices across the board were firm to begin the week.

Cheyenne Plains said late Tuesday it was continuing its free flow operation “as well as removing delivery point constraints as downstream delivery point operators agree to accept off-spec gas from Cheyenne Plains.” Effective with Cycle 2 nominations for Wednesday’s gas day, receipts from WIC at the Curly and Thunder Chief interconnects and from CIG at the Red Cloud interconnect were again possible at their normal capacity, Cheyenne Plains said, explaining that the leaking valve on its system that had previously prevented receipts from WIC and CIG had been returned to service. See the bulletin board for a list of delivery point operators that have agreed to waive their carbon dioxide (CO2) gas quality requirements and to accept gas that contains up to 3% CO2, along with allowable point-specific volumes. In another posting, Cheyenne Plains said that while an investigation of Sunday’s Cheyenne Plains Compressor Station fire (see Daily GPI, Sept. 18) is still under way, “we believe the fire resulted from the release and subsequent ignition of gas when the flange connections associated with a relief valve on the suction side of the Cheyenne Plains compression failed. When the fire was detected, all compression in the Cheyenne yard was shut down, including that serving Colorado Interstate Gas Company (CIG) and Wyoming Interstate Company, Ltd. (WIC). Subsequently, the compression facilities serving CIG and WIC were able to return to service. Although damage assessments of the Cheyenne Plains facilities are continuing, it is clear that a significant amount of instrumentation and electrical wiring was damaged in the fire and will need to be replaced. This includes most of the cable trays and associated electrical wiring. Some nearby yard piping and valves appear to need replacement as well.”

FERC has rejected Gulf South Pipeline’s proposal to incorporate revised natural gas quality specifications into its tariff. The agency, however, left open the door for Gulf South to refile a “properly supported” proposal at a later date.

Hope that natural gas will flow out of the Canadian Arctic was revived among boosters of the stalled northern pipeline project after four producers took out new exploration rights in the Beaufort Sea (see Daily GPI, July 20).

Hope that natural gas will flow out of the Canadian Arctic was revived among boosters of the stalled northern pipeline project after four producers took out new exploration rights in the Beaufort Sea. Imperial Oil, ExxonMobil Canada, ConocoPhillips Canada and Chevron Canada scooped up 1,600 square miles (4,172 square kilometers)of drilling rights in a region offshore of the Mackenzie Delta long known to be rich in gas.

Rather improbably, since cooling demand remains moderately subpar for early July outside the western U.S. and a holiday flow date was involved, prices rose in most of the cash market Tuesday. A few points that were flat to down about 15 cents extended a recent trend of mixed price movement nearly every day.