Integrity

Tennessee Gas maintained an operational flow order for Wednesday due to nominations in excess of available capacity in Zone 0 and at Niagara. It placed restrictions on deliveries to Station 40 and at its Niagara River Meter. Tennessee also said it will not accept any increases pathed through MLV 528, excluding the header on the Bluewater system and the TTT line 523M-2300 from Eugene Island 365 to Ship Shoal 198. It restricted flow through Station 834. For details see its pipeline bulletin board. Tennessee also confirmed leaks on its 26-inch diameter pipeline at Ship Shoal 157 and Ship Shoal 144. Divers are assessing the damage. Its mainline valve 528 remains shut in due to water at the Port Sulphur Compressor Station (Station 527). It also incurred damage in the South Timbalier area on several lines (524J-100, 524J-600, and 524J-800) and has leaks on the 524C-100 line and the 524C-600 line. Tennessee said it has survey boats inspecting the West Delta, South Pass, and Main Pass areas. It determined that the meters on the Blue Water Header (from Vermillion 245 to Ship Shoal 198) as well as the TTT line 523M-2300 (from Eugene Island 365 to Ship Shoal 198) are available and can begin flowing. The east leg of the Blue Water system remains shut-in. Therefore, gas that would typically be processed at the Yscloskey processing plant will now be flowing on the Blue Water header in a westerly direction and will require processing at the Blue Water Plant. Producers flowing on this portion of the Blue Water system with a hydrocarbon dew point greater than 20 degrees must sign a processing agreement with the Blue Water plant immediately.

Due to high linepack and in order to maintain operational integrity, Tennessee Gas issued a Critical Day 1 operational flow order on Friday for Saturday’s flow for all LMS-PA balancing parties and LMS-MA balancing parties with meters located in Zone 0. Shippers were required to maintain an actual daily flow rate not exceeding a tolerance of 2% of scheduled quantities or 1,000 Dths, whichever is greater. Violators were to be charged $5.00 plus the applicable regional daily spot price per dekatherm for overdeliveries and undertakes.

The voluntary reporting guidelines put in place by FERC to ensure the integrity of U.S. natural gas published price indices has resulted in a restructured system which appears to have restored market confidence, a panel of energy experts said last week in Houston.

Sonat reported completion Monday of integrity work that had begun Aug. 3 on the 14-inch Logansport Line west of Bienville Compressor Station in North Louisiana and required a reduction in flowing capacity. The finish beat a late August projection by Sonat that the work would not end until Sept. 3 (see Daily GPI, Aug. 24). The pipeline canceled an associated OFO Type 5 issued Aug. 26 and resumed accepting nominations at the J. W. Gathering point.

The nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) last Tuesday formally petitioned the U.S. Justice Department to open a criminal investigation of American Electric Power (AEP) for what EIP said appear to be “extensive violations” of the Clean Air Act taking place over multiple years, citing allegations made by a former AEP employee.

System integrity work on the 36-inch Grande Prairie Mainline is on schedule (see Daily GPI, Feb. 26) and all affected services are scheduled to be restored at the start of Wednesday’s gas day, NOVA reported Tuesday. Customers’ nominations will be reinstated to pre-outage levels, but Common Stream Operators will be required to submit new allocations to reflect nomination changes, NOVA said.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s “rules of the road,” designed to maintain market integrity and eliminate manipulation (Order 644), instead will put a wrench in the works of efficient market operations, a number of market participants said in asking the Commission for further clarifications.

Dual proposals by Michigan Consolidated Gas (MichCon) to lower commodity costs and raise distribution charges will in the long run increase monthly gas bills for the typical residential customer by 7% on an annualized basis.

Dual proposals by Michigan Consolidated Gas (MichCon) to lower commodity costs and raise distribution charges will in the long run increase monthly gas bills for the typical residential customer by 7% on an annualized basis.