Majeure

Alliance Pipeline announced Thursday that it had restarted its mainline system from northern British Columbia and Alberta to Chicago, six days after it halted operations to clean poisonous contamination out of the system (see related story).

Ruby Pipeline flows have been cut to zero until further notice as Ruby declared a force majeure after experiencing a fire and some damage Saturday in its block valve 6 yard in a remote area of southeastern Cache County, UT. A segment of its pipeline around the block valve 6 was shut in and isolated to allow damage assessment and repairs. Ruby said Sunday it is unable to receive or deliver gas. Based on an inspection of the fire damage, which occurred at a gas line to auxiliary equipment, the damage will require more repairs to the valve, valve operator and auxiliary equipment than initially thought, the pipeline added. A road to the snow-covered site has been plowed and repair crews are on site.

Although the force majeure declared Tuesday is still in effect, Stingray said Thursday it is no longer experiencing liquids takeaway issues. See the bulletin board for a list of points that are being reopened Thursday and Friday for receipts and/or deliveries, along with conditions that must be satisfied for customers to use those points.

As a result of liquids takeaway issues at its processing plant being resolved, Stingray canceled Tuesday the force majeure it had declared Oct. 24. See the bulletin board for a list of delivery points that have been reactivated.

At the start of Wednesday’s gas day Destin will end a force majeure event and resume normal operations from its Main Pass 260 platform through the onshore Pascagoula Gas Plant in Mississippi (see Daily GPI, Oct. 18). The alternate delivery point to Viosca Knoll Gathering System will no longer be available for transportation services until further notice, Destin said.

Stingray declared a force majeure after being notified of a potential leak in the vicinity of West Cameron Block 543, and as a precautionary measure has asked operators of the West Cameron 544 and High Island A260 platforms to shut in until further notice. Stingray said late Wednesday afternoon it had closed the valve downstream of its 16-inch diameter lateral until investigation of the potential leak is completed. Stingray earlier had asked all producers on its system to shut in until further notice because it was experiencing an excessive amount of liquids arriving onshore that exceeded its takeaway ability.

NGPL declared a force majeure after discovering a line leak on the Fletcher Lateral near Compressor Station 156 in Caddo County, OK. The impacted pipe section has been taken out of service and until further notice the Kerr-McGee-Patterson #1-8 receipt point is unavailable for transport services, NGPL said.

Columbia Gas (TCO) declared a force majeure following an oil pump failure on a unit at Walbridge Compressor Station in Wayne County, WV. Coupled with a Line P construction outage, the oil pump failure has resulted in the inability to receive production from meters on Lines BM-39 and BM-19, TCO said. Operating capacity at 18 meters was taken to zero Tuesday, while capacity at another meter was allocated downward by 14%.

Although Destin lifted Thursday morning a force majeure that it had declared two days earlier due to issues at an onshore liquids handling facility (see Daily GPI, Sept. 1), that afternoon it reported being unable to provide transportation services from its offshore receipt points due to the approach of a tropical depression (which became Tropical Storm Lee on Friday). Onshore receipt and delivery points were not affected.