Force

Tennessee lifted Monday a systemwide Imbalance Warning that had been implemented two days earlier.

Several state senators introduced legislation last week designed to help spur investment in the natural gas industry.

Saying it has limited operational flexibility to manage imbalances in zones 0, L, 1 and 2, and due to the force majeure at Station 214 in Ohio resulting from a potential pipe rupture Thursday night, Tennessee issued an Imbalance Warning Monday requiring all delivery point operators in those zones to keep actual daily takes out of the system equal to or greater than scheduled quantities regardless of their cumulative imbalance position. Similarly, all receipt point operators in the zones were asked to keep actual daily receipts into the system equal to or less than scheduled quantities regardless of their cumulative imbalance position.

Tennessee declared a force majeure event Friday for Station 214 (Carrolton, OH) after a “possible rupture” occurred nearby (see related story). No injuries were reported, and there was no interruption of customer service, said pipeline spokesman Robert Newberry. However, Tennessee anticipated limiting intraday flow increases for Friday’s gas day and restricting 100% secondary out of path (SOP) nominations and lower priority services going forward, with a possibility of restricting a pro-rata portion of secondary in path (SIP) nominations. “At this time the certainty of such restrictions [is] unknown due to the current investigation of the incident,” a bulletin board posting said.

Tennessee declared a force majeure event of an unspecified nature Friday for the 26-inch diameter 523M-100 line south of Cocodrie, LA. Tennessee said it has isolated the pipe section and is in the process of lowering the pressure for further analysis. Five Ship Shoal and two South Pelto meters were required to shut in, but Tennessee said it is allowing associated nominations to remain in place at this time.

Major joint ventures (JV) in North American unconventional resource plays were a driving force in pushing worldwide merger and acquisition (M&A) activity to a record high in 2010, preliminary data indicate.

The debate over hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is sparking concerns about drinking water safety in the Marcellus Shale area and nationwide, according to the results of a trio of surveys released by the nonprofit Civil Society Institute (CSI).

Rockies Express lifted Tuesday the force majeure it had issued Monday in association with a unit outage at Turney Compressor Station. No service was affected, the pipeline said.

The Pennsylvania House on Tuesday and the Senate on Wednesday separately voted in lame duck sessions to override Gov. Ed Rendell’s veto of an education bill. However, the severance tax on gas drillers that Rendell and some lawmakers had sought for more than two years was never considered.