Lift

Southern California Gas allowed a high-linepack OFO to lapse Monday. The OFO had been in effect since March 17 (see Daily GPI, March 19).

ANR said Thursday morning it had completed engine repairs at Sandwich Compressor Station and would lift the associated capacity restrictions for the next available nominations cycle.

At the start of Wednesday’s gas day MRT will lift the System Protection Warning placed into effect Nov. 23.

Rising commodity prices failed to lift London-based BP plc, which reported a 3.6% drop in quarterly earnings Tuesday. The oil major also warned daily oil and natural gas production will be slightly lower for the year.

In an interim update Tuesday, ConocoPhillips said higher production in the Lower 48, Australia and Venezuela won’t be enough to lift 1Q2006 production on a boe/d basis above output in the final quarter of 2005. The Houston-based producer also said it expects crude prices to be higher than in the previous quarter, up to $61.75/bbl from $56.90, while natural gas prices will drop to $9.01/Mcf (Henry Hub) from $13.

Operating conditions related to low linepack on the El Paso system stabilized to the point that the pipeline was able to lift Friday the Critical Operating Condition (COC) that it had declared the day before (see Daily GPI, Dec. 9). “With temperatures moderating, receipt volumes appear to be recovering and demand continues to decline,” El Paso said in a bulletin board posting. “System linepack is still low and Washington Ranch Storage Facility is still on withdrawal at maximum capacity. As a result, rather than completely canceling the COC, El Paso is lowering it to a Strained Operating Condition” with a 10% imbalance threshold. Shippers would be allowed to submit make-up nominations Saturday to correct any shortfalls encountered during Friday’s gas day, it added.

While a California congressman, backed by manufacturers across the country, is leading the charge to lift restrictions on offshore drilling for oil and natural gas, a report to the California Independent System Operator’s (CAISO) oversight board points out that natural gas prices in the West have been relatively unaffected by the recent hurricanes and have been significantly lower than the rest of the country.

While Sabine Pipe Line continues to lift its force majeure on a few more Henry Hub interconnects each day, Cambridge Energy Research Associates’ (CERA) Kenneth Yeasting, director of Eastern North American Energy, wonders if too much emphasis has been placed on the Erath, LA, pipeline hub as the benchmark pricing point for North American natural gas market.

Chemical producers, who have been rocked by escalating natural gas prices, called on the Bush administration this week to lift the restrictions on oil and natural gas drilling in much of the federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).