Lifted

Northern Natural Gas had a System Overrun Limitation notice in effect Saturday and Sunday but lifted it Monday.

The New England natural gas market breathed a sigh of relief last week when the U.S. Coast Guard lifted its ban on liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers into Boston Harbor, clearing the way for Distrigas of Massachusetts LLC to receive overseas’ shipments once again at its Everett, MA, terminal.

El Paso lifted Friday an Overpull Penalty Alert notice that had been posted Tuesday afternoon. However, it cautioned that with a San Juan Crossover project involving installation of pigging facilities on Lines 1300 and 1301 scheduled for Dec. 1-2, 300 MMcf/d of system supply would be unavailable over the weekend and the alert would be reinstated if necessary. El Paso said concerns about cold weather, low linepack and other operational issues had caused rumors that the Crossover work might be canceled, although no such statement had been issued by the pipeline. Because El Paso and upstream producers had invested substantial efforts and resources in preparing for the maintenance, “rescheduling would be very difficult. The operational concerns have lessened considerably, and although the overall system is not in ideal condition for a shutdown of this scale, the shutdown will occur as scheduled.”

Gulf South lifted Tuesday morning an Operational Flow Order that had been issued Saturday to require shippers to immediately conform actual receipts with actual deliveries. All Operational Balancing Agreements that had been suspended Sunday morning also were reinstated “unless otherwise provided.” Gulf South said the OFO had been issued because its system could not tolerate any further imbalances.

Pacific Gas & Electric lifted a high-linepack OFO Saturday. However, Southern California Gas extended a similar Overnominations Day notice that had begun Thursday into at least its third day Saturday.

Lifted by a strong portfolio management strategy, Duke Energy’s third quarter results posted last week showed a 46% gain, with earnings per share (EPS) of $1.02, up from 70 cents per share a year ago. Revenues also rose 7% to $16.7 billion, primarily because of the Charlotte, NC-based company’s wholesale natural gas and power sales.

Transco lifted Monday a restriction on scheduled quantities through Station 40 in East Texas to primary firm transportation only; it had been imposed Thursday (see Daily GPI, Sept. 27). The pipeline also ended Monday a restriction on due-pipeline imbalance make-ups but said it will maintain a limit on positive imbalances at all pooling points.

For the second session in a row, natural gas futures were lifted from early morning lows Tuesday as bargain buying more than offset short selling. But just like Friday, the session-long rally yesterday was not enough to recoup losses sustained on the open, leaving the market with yet another in a string of down-days. The October contract closed at $2.359, off 2.1 cents for the session, but more than a dime above its $2.255 low.

Because of market area rain that eased a low-linepack condition, Florida Gas Transmission lifted Wednesday an Overage Alert Day notice that had declared Monday. An El Paso low-linepack OFO remained in effect.