Louisiana

Tennessee said Monday rehab work on the Sun Lateral in westernLouisiana will be completed ahead of schedule and it will resumetaking nominations at all Sun meters for Wednesday’s gas day. Thepipeline had earlier projected that the project would extend untilJuly 9 (see Daily GPI, June 22).

Florida Gas Transmission reported completion of lowering its30-inch mainline at Station 7.5 in South Louisiana ahead ofschedule and has commenced lowering the 24-inch mainline. This workis expected to limit St. Landry volumes to 910 MMcf/d-65 MMcf/dbelow maximum-through April 10.

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Houston Industries Wholesale Energy Group, an affiliate ofHouston Lighting & Power, has signed a 10-year contract tosupply up to 50 Bcf to LGS Natural Gas, an affiliate of LouisianaGas Service Co., the largest distributor in the state.

Samson Resources Co., of Tulsa has acquired a significant blockof producing oil and gas properties in Texas, Louisiana,Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. from Duer Wagner& Co. of Fort Worth. The purchase price was in excess of $40million. The properties are located in the same geographical areasas certain of Samson’s existing properties and include multipleopportunities for additional drilling and recompletions.

Koch Gateway Pipeline is planning a new 600 MMcf/d pipelineexpansion from the Grand Isle, LA, area to Koch’s mainline inLouisiana. The project is designed to meet increasing demand fromdeep-water Gulf of Mexico producers seeking new delivery capacityand will complement Koch’s recently proposed Sea Star Pipeline. SeaStar is expected to deliver 660 MMcf/d of gas to Grand Isleprocessing plants from the South Pass and West Delta South Additionof the Offshore Continental Shelf.

Petal Gas Storage Co. (Petal), a subsidiary of Louisiana-basedCrystal Oil Co., plans to expand its high-deliverability saltcavern storage facility near Hattiesburg, MS. The proposedexpansion would include leaching an additional salt cavern with astorage capacity of 5 Bcf of which 3 Bcf would be working gas. Thenew cavern, combined with the existing 5.2 Bcf cavern (3.2 Bcfworking gas) would have a withdrawal capacity of 600 MMcf/d.

“Everything basically went back to index,” said a trader onLouisiana pipes Thursday after prices had slipped to either side of$2. Markets were down across the board, even in previously immuneintra-Alberta. Reasons for the softness weren’t hard to find:moderating weather, a huge storage injection report and a plungingfutures screen.

Hot weather in the producing states of Louisiana and Texas,along with the futures screen’s rising example, set the tone forcash price hikes of 2-3 cents to almost a dime Monday. One tradersaid supplies seemed a bit tight in the Gulf Coast and Midcontinentfor some reason, allowing that it might have been southern coolingdemand soaking up available gas.