Louisiana

Sixteen natural gas processing plants in Louisiana and Texas that had a pre-hurricane flow volume of 5.45 Bcf/d remain shut down, according to information supplied by Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman to a Senate panel last Thursday.

Sixteen natural gas processing plants in Louisiana and Texas that had a pre-hurricane flow volume of 5.45 Bcf/d remain shut down, according to information supplied by Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman to a Senate panel Thursday.

Texas Eastern said an inspection of its Cameron system offshore southwest Louisiana has determined that production from 37 meters (see bulletin board for list) can begin flows at 9 a.m. CDT Wednesday. The pipeline will accept nominations for supply sourced from the posted meters once the meter operator has contacted its Texas Eastern operations account manager to report the status of production. Meters on the Cameron system that are not listed should remain shut in as further investigations continue, Texas Eastern said.

To restore oil and natural gas production in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the energy industry and federal government must focus on easing the plight of energy workers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, many of whose homes have been destroyed and/or are under water, so that they can return to platforms and drilling rigs, said a top official with a major pipeline group.

An estimated 8.29 Bcf/d of natural was reported to have been shut in when Hurricane Katrina roared across the production facilities off the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts late Sunday and early Monday, according to report issued by Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) offices in Washington, DC and its temporary office in Houston.

FERC on Friday issued a favorable environmental clearance to Sempra Energy’s proposed 17 Bcf Liberty natural gas storage facility in Louisiana that is designed to accommodate the expanding network of liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in the southeastern United States, as well as traditional gas suppliers and customers.

Houston-based Cheniere Energy Inc., which is developing several liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana, said Thursday that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has begun a formal investigation into some agreements the company signed last year with Chevron USA.

Dallas-based Crosstex Energy LP said Monday it will pay $500 million for El Paso Corp.’s processing and liquids business in South Louisiana, which includes 2 Bcf/d of processing capacity, 66,000 bbl/d of fractionation capacity, 2.4 million bbl of underground storage and 140 miles of liquids transport lines.

Columbia Gulf said it will begin accepting nominations Wednesday for up to 183,000 Dth/d Egan Hub Storage in South Louisiana following a one-day maintenance shutdown of Egan Tuesday. The pipeline had previously expected to have only 150,000 Dth/d of Egan capacity available Wednesday (see Daily GPI, July 26).