Louisiana

With Tropical Storm Bill having departed the production area offshore Louisiana following a rather benign pass-through, air conditioning load not rising enough to make a meaningful difference, and the low-demand Independence Day weekend rapidly approaching, mild to moderate softening seemed appropriate Tuesday. The previous day’s overall gains were partially eroded by new numbers that ranged from flat to down a little more than 20 cents.

The Houston Exploration Co. on Thursday announced three natural gas discoveries in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). The wells, which together are expected to produce about 35 MMcf/d, will begin ramping up this year, with the first well set to begin production in August.

Continuing with its plan to increase domestic production, Noble Energy Inc. said Monday that the Louisiana State Lease 340 No. 1 (Mound Point Prospect) has been drilled and evaluated to a measured depth of 19,024 feet. The company noted that evaluation of the logs and cores indicate that there are three middle Miocene aged sands with a total of 111 feet of net natural gas pay. Houston-based Noble Energy and its partners said they plan to complete the Mound Point Prospect well with production expected to come on early in the fourth quarter. Noble Energy holds a 24.98% working interest in the prospect. El Paso Production Co. is the operator with a 31.98% working interest, while ChevronTexaco Corp. has a 42.98% working interest. The remaining private partner owns 0.056%. Noble Energy also reported that it has recently spudded another deep shelf prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, Eugene Island 317. Eugene Island 317 is designed to drill to a total depth of 18,500 feet. Noble Energy is the operator with a 66.67% working interest with Spinnaker Exploration Company holding the remaining 33.3% stake. Although Noble Energy’s first quarter 2003 production volumes declined by 1% to 101,235 boe/d when compared to 1Q2002’s volume of 102,416 boe/d, the company’s 1Q2003 production was higher than that of 4Q2002, with overall volumes increasing more than 4% from 96,898 boe/d (see Daily GPI, May 1).

Sonat completed shut-in testing Tuesday at its Bear Creek storage facility in North Louisiana and canceled the associated force majeure that had been in effect since April 1.

Tennessee delayed a project to abandon certain facilities associated with Line 527A-300 offshore Louisiana until April 28-May 13. The work previously had been scheduled for April 23-May 8 (see Daily GPI, April 10).

Effective April 1, total nominations at receipt points on its 26-inch Main Pass Line offshore southeast Louisiana increased significantly, Sonat said. Also, it began scheduled maintenance at compressor stations in the production area, and as a result, some interruptible nominations (“A-1” and or “IT”) are not being accepted due to capacity constraints. In addition, several receipt points on the Main Pass Line have been identified at which actual flows are exceeding scheduled flows, the pipeline said. It encouraged all shippers on the line to check scheduled quantities to determine how much of their interruptible receipt nominations were accepted, and asked operators not to overdeliver into the system in order to avoid implementation of a Type 5 OFO.

NGPL expected to complete planned maintenance on Compressor Station 343 in Liberty County, TX on its Louisiana Line (see Daily GPI, Dec. 3) by Thursday night. Capacity will be back to normal in Segment 25 for Friday’s gas day, the pipeline said.

Sonat reported being notified by Enterprise Products Operating L.P. that the Toca 2 processing plant in South Louisiana will be shut down Thursday because of the relationship between prices for natural gas and liquids. As a result, LTA percentages for shippers who elected to process at the Enterprise-Toca plant will be changed to a rate equal to 65% of the rate that was in effect for Dec. 1-11. Shippers were encouraged to communicate with suppliers concerning the level of liquefiable hydrocarbons in their gas supplies for the remainder of December and beyond, and should be prepared to make adjustments in their sourcing arrangements to minimize the amount of liquefiable hydrocarbons entering Sonat’s system.

Piping on the Bay Marchand 5 platform offshore southeastern Louisiana was damaged during Hurricane Lili, Tennessee said. A jackup rig is scheduled to be on site Dec. 18 to perform repairs that are expected to last eight days. Physical flow will be suspended Dec. 18-25 at the following meters: Bay Marchand 24, Grand Isle 47, South Timbalier 22, Grand Isle 48J, South Timbalier 54/55E, and South Timbalier 23. A second Bay Marchand meter will be affected, but its block number was not identified.