Modifications

Due to its Washington Ranch storage facility being scheduled for annual Department of Transportation inspections, modifications to storage field piping and upgrades to compressor units this month, El Paso said there will be no injections or withdrawals Sept. 11-18. Also, injections will be limited to about 75 MMcf/d Sept. 19-30, but withdrawals will be possible during that time. These projects will cause El Paso to lose a large degree of operational flexibility, “making it critical that all parties scheduling gas on our pipeline manage their volumes carefully to balance receipts and deliveries daily,” the pipeline said. In order to maintain system integrity, it may place nonperformance caps on receipt/delivery pipeline interconnects, and is prepared to declare a Strained Operating Condition or Critical Operating Condition if necessary.

TGT’s Airways Delivery Meter Station to the Memphis Light Gas and Water citygate is out of service through May 31 for facility modifications. Tennessee Valley Authority’s Allen Power Plant is served through the station.

Transco will perform piping modifications at North Padre Island Block A42 beginning Thursday. The work is expected to last two days; during that time no flow will be allowed at North Padre Island Blocks 892/893 and A12 or at Mustang Island Blocks 31A and 31B.

Tennessee will perform pipeline modifications Oct. 14-24 to the 500 Line at the Yscloskey Gas Processing Plant, located near Main Line Valve 529 in southeast Louisiana. The work will not impact available capacity on the 500 Line, but the Eloi Bay meter will be out of service during the entire period. In addition, Tennessee will be unable to deliver gas to Yscloskey for processing starting Oct. 14. On or about Oct. 18, Tennessee anticipates resuming deliveries of about 600 MMcf/d to Yscloskey, with full deliveries due again after Oct. 24.

With minor modifications and clarifications, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission accepted a settlement yesterday between the Midwest ISO, several of its transmission-owning members and the Alliance RTO.

During the Oct. 29-31 period, PG&E GT-Northwest will takethe Stanfield (OR) Meter Station out of service to completemodifications requested by Northwest Pipeline to meet expandingdemand of 130,000 Dth. Physical deliveries to Northwest will belimited to 200 MMcf/d through an emergency intertie. There will beno net physical receipts into PG&E GT-NW. Capacity allocationswill be based on service priority.

Caught in the midst of heated criticism of FERC’s proposedauction mechanism, Mississippi River Transmission (MRT) isdefending its proposed new auction procedures from attack bymarketers and producers.

The Duke Energy Pipelines have registered their support – with”minor modifications” – for FERC’s proposed changes to itsexisting regulations governing the construction of new pipelinefacilities.

FERC last week approved, subject to modifications, a majorsettlement that spells out how Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America(NGPL) will auction off long- and short-term transportationcapacity on its system. The decision was seen as a big win for theMidwest pipeline, with the Commission siding with it on keycontested auction-related issues.