Mainline

Operator Northern Natural Gas declared force majeure after detecting a leak in the 20-inch mainline of Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System (MOPS) near the platform at Mustang Island 787. Offshore maintenance crews were responding, NNG said in a bulletin board posting late Thursday afternoon, and the Mustang Island 782, 785, 787, 803 and A-16 receipt points were to be shut in sometime during Friday’s gas day. Duration of the outage has not yet been determined, it said.

Tuscarora Gas Transmission has filed an application with FERC to add a new 8,000 hp compressor station on its mainline near milepost 81.6 in Modoc County, CA, and a 3,600 hp booster compressor at its existing Wadsworth station in Washoe County, NV. The new compression will cost $16.5 million and will boost its firm transportation capacity by 51,753 Dth/d. Tuscarora requested Commission approval by Nov. 18 so that the facilities can be put into service before the 2005-2006 heating season. Reno-based Tuscarora operates a pipeline system extending in a southeasterly direction from a point of interconnection with the facilities of Gas Transmission Northwest Corp. near Malin, OR, to a terminus near Wadsworth, NV, where Tuscarora interconnects with Paiute Pipeline Co.

System integrity work on the 36-inch Grande Prairie Mainline is on schedule (see Daily GPI, Feb. 26) and all affected services are scheduled to be restored at the start of Wednesday’s gas day, NOVA reported Tuesday. Customers’ nominations will be reinstated to pre-outage levels, but Common Stream Operators will be required to submit new allocations to reflect nomination changes, NOVA said.

NOVA will restrict firm service to just over 90% of contract demand on the 36-inch Grande Prairie Mainline to allow for system integrity work that is scheduled for Friday evening through the beginning of the March 3 gas day. See the bulletin board for a list of affected stations and those that will be excluded.

After excavating and investigating mainline anomaly locations identified through pigging data, Northwest said Monday several locations require pipe replacements that will be done Tuesday through Friday this week. It issued a notice of Declared Deficiency Period and posted this schedule of impacts: Sept. 23-26, the Vernal Cut Point must net to zero all four days; Sept. 23, all receipt/delivery points between valves 2-7 and 2-8A will be cut to zero, including Bar-X, Bar-X Premier, Badger Wash, Grand Junction and Calf Canyon LFC; and Sept. 25, all receipt/delivery points between valves 2-9 and 2-10 will be cut to zero, including Foundation Creek, West Douglas, Dragon Trail and Sand Springs.

NOVA lifted Tuesday afternoon a force majeure declaration for the 8-inch Hamilton Lake Mainline in eastern Alberta (see Daily GPI, Sept. 9) and reinstated services at the Hamilton Lake and Veteran Meter Stations.

NOVA declared force majeure Sunday after a backhoe caused a line rupture on the 8-inch Hamilton Lake Mainline in eastern Alberta. The line was isolated and flows at Veteran Meter Station (typically just under 2 MMcf/d) and Hamilton Lake Meter Station (12.5 MMcf/d) were cut to zero until further notice.

NGPL said the start of integrity testing on its mainline Segment 2 where a pipe failure occurred earlier this month (see Daily GPI, Aug. 13) has been delayed by one day to Friday instead of Thursday as previously planned. The testing is still expected to last approximately six weeks. As it progresses, various receipt points will become unavailable for receipt of gas into the pipeline. Once a point is impacted, it may remain unavailable until the entire Segment 2 has been returned to service, NGPL said. However, the actual in-service dates for each point may vary depending on the progress of the testing. See the bulletin board for a schedule of points being shut in and related transport restrictions.

NGPL shut in two receipt points in the immediate area shortly after identifying a mainline failure in Caddo County, OK shortly before 1 p.m. CDT Friday. No injuries or significant physical damage to the surrounding area have been reported, according to the pipeline. It said it would use its “operational flexibility to minimize the impact to shippers for today’s [Friday] gas day and most likely for future days.” The incident resulted in a few transportation constraints; see the bulletin board for details. No delivery points were being impacted Friday, the pipeline said, but delivery points along the A/G Line (Segments 15 and 17) “are at a slight risk of being impacted.”