Flows

GulfTerra Energy Partners said its Phoenix Gas Pipeline has received initial gas flows from the Red Hawk Field in the Garden Banks area of the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. Phoenix is a 78- mile, 18-inch diameter pipeline originating in 5,300 feet of water at the Red Hawk cell spar in Garden Banks Block 876. The pipeline interconnects with the ANR Pipeline system at Vermilion Block 397 and is capable of transporting up to 450 MMcf/d of gas. Red Hawk is operated by Kerr-McGee Oil and Gas Corp. and owned by Kerr-McGee and Devon Energy. The Red Hawk cell spar has an initial capacity of 120 MMcf/d and can be expanded to a production capacity of 300 MMcf/d (see Daily GPI, July 20).

In trading for April Fool’s Day flows, cash prices weren’t joking around. Except for some close-to-flat Rockies points, Wednesday’s quotes for the start of the April aftermarket continued to post substantial double-digit gains that were larger than Tuesday’s end-of-March upticks in many cases. Non-Rockies points rose anywhere from about 15 cents to 35 cents.

With no drag from a weekend load slump playing a role, colder weather due in the Northeast and Midwest early this week, and the delayed support of a bullish storage report and its accompanying screen run-up Thursday, the March aftermarket got off to an impressively strong launch Friday.

After increasing only marginally for the past several years, U.S. demand for natural gas is “likely to rise sharply in the next 10 years” as a series of gas-fired power plants come on line, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

After increasing only marginally for the past several years, U.S. demand for natural gas is “likely to rise sharply in the next 10 years” as a series of gas-fired power plants come on line, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

Citing weather conditions, Tennessee postponed the completion date of a 526A-600 Line outage to next Wednesday. Physical flows at six offshore meters have been suspended during the outage.

With natural gas prices up, Consol Energy Inc. recalculated its future net cash flows of proved coalbed methane gas (CBM) reserves, estimating a current value of $1.09 billion before taxes, and assuming a 10% discount rate, as of Dec.31, 2002. The value is nearly two-and-one-half times 2001’s reserve value of $432 million.

The latest developments in the Enron case include the appointment of an examiner to monitor cash flows at Enron North America, reports that Arthur Andersen is seeking a total settlement of claims against the accounting firm relating to Enron, and statements by Enron’s interim CEO Stephen Cooper that the bankrupt company is planning a “broad legal assault” against individuals who forced the company into bankruptcy.

The April aftermarket got off to a weak start Friday as quotesfor gas flows Sunday and today were below both first-of-monthindexes and end-of-March levels in virtually all cases. The biggestdropoffs occurred in California, where temperatures were much moresummer-like than elsewhere. However, the Golden State stillretained the dubious distinction of having the most expensive gasby far.