Mainline

Because forest fires are currently active around TransCanada’s mainline Compressor Station 60 in northern Ontario, as a precaution the pipeline will not operate the Station 60 units until the situation improves. TransCanada said it does not anticipate the need for transportation restrictions unless changes in operational conditions or nomination levels require them.

An explosion rocked a portion of Colorado Interstate Gas Co.’s (CIG) mainline in Colorado on March 23, but it did not interrupt natural gas deliveries to the region or cause any injuries, according to the pipeline. On Friday, a spokesman for El Paso Corp., which owns CIG, said repairs on the damaged section of the pipeline had been completed, and the company was awaiting clearance from the federal Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) to begin flowing gas through the affected line.

An explosion rocked a portion of Colorado Interstate Gas Co.’s mainline in Colorado Sunday evening, but it did not interrupt natural gas deliveries to the region or cause any injuries, a spokesman for the pipeline said Monday.

Florida Gas Transmission said Friday morning it had completed repairs of a pinhole leak on the 22-inch mainline downstream of Station 4 in Galveston County, TX (see Daily GPI, March 7). The pipeline resumes scheduling up to normal capacity through Station 4 for Friday’s gas day.

ANR said the critical outage along its Southwest Mainline just upstream of the New Windsor Compressor Station in Illinois remained in effect Tuesday. Investigation and analysis of Sunday night’s rupture (see Daily GPI, Feb. 4) continue. ANR does not expect the impacted facilities to become operational again until late this week. “Transportation service through this area will be evaluated and scheduled on a daily basis. Availability of secondary and interruptible transportation will depend on Firm Primary nominations,” the pipeline said.

Westcoast postponed the planned Aug. 27 Fort Nelson mainline outage for the tie-in of the 2002 Fort Nelson looping addition upstream of Compressor Station N5. Approval to proceed with the looping project has not yet been obtained from the National Energy Board but is expected to be forthcoming, the pipeline said. Westcoast still plans to complete the tie-in within the Aug. 27-Sept. 20 Fort Nelson Gas Plant turnaround period.

Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System (MOPS) was shut down for unplanned maintenance after a leak was detected on the 24-inch mainline near Matagorda Block 758, MOPS operator Northern Natural Gas reported Friday afternoon. All production needed to be shut in as soon as possible, NNG said. It took 24 receipt points and nine delivery points to zero flow for downtime that was expected to last about 48 hours. About half of MOPS’ 100 MMcf/d in nominations for Friday’s gas day was affected, a spokesman said, with approximately 100 MMcf/d in impact expected effective Saturday until leak repairs are completed.

Transco reported receiving gas with “slightly higher heating content in its mainline over the past week and feels this is the result of processing plants scaling back their operations due to poor economics.” It reminded producers and shippers on its system to ensure that processing arrangements are in place that will allow receipts to meet the pipeline’s merchantability requirements. Those specifications were outlined in a notice that was most recently reposted on July 27, 2001, Transco said.

El Paso said its Line 1,200 outage between the Williams and Seligman stations continued yesterday, reducing the capacity of the North Mainline by 40 MMcf/d. The current outage at Dilkon B turbine is causing a reduction of an additional 35 MMcf/d, for a total 75 MMcf/d. A completion date for Dilkon B has not yet been determined. If you have operational or scheduling questions, call your scheduling representative at (719) 520-4706. The pipeline also was in the process of installing a new 10-foot section of pipe downstream of its Bondad station on Line 1218. Pigging found the section to be flawed and in need of replacement, an El Paso spokeswoman said. The line was taken out of service for emergency repairs Wednesday, reducing the capacity through Bondad Station by 190 MMcf/d. The reduction was effective through Thursday but the work is expected to be completed for Friday flows.