Night

Noting forecasts of sub-zero cold for much of Wisconsin Wednesday night and Thursday, ANR declared an Extreme Condition effective at 9 p.m. CST Wednesday until further notice. ANR said the action lowers its “Swing Percentage” (essentially, negative imbalance tolerance) from 10% to 5%, and it is not allowing any Unauthorized Overrun under Rate Schedules FTS-1, FTS-2, FTS-3, STS and ETS. The pipeline also asked that all receipts and deliveries in Wisconsin, excluding ETS and FTS-3 services, be at a uniform hourly flow rate over a 24-hour period.

The staffs of House and Senate Republican negotiators were expected to work throughout Friday night to “hammer out the details” of the remaining sticking points to a broad energy bill in time for a final conference committee session possibly as early as Monday.

The staffs of House and Senate Republican negotiators were expected to work throughout Friday night to “hammer out the details” of the remaining sticking points to a broad energy bill in time for a final conference committee session possibly as early as Monday.

A district judge was expected to rule as early as Monday night on whether McGraw-Hill Cos. subsidiary Platts would be required to turn over its natural gas trading data to the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) following a hearing in Houston on Monday. The CFTC subpoenaed the data as part of an investigation into market manipulation during the western energy crisis.

After grazing the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula Thursday night as it entered the Gulf of Mexico, Tropical Storm Claudette quickly forced natural gas and oil producers on Friday to begin implementing preventative measures on their Gulf platforms, including production shut-ins and employee evacuations. One forecaster warned that Western and Central Gulf Hubs could be in big trouble come Tuesday morning.

After grazing the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula Thursday night as it entered the Gulf of Mexico, Tropical Storm Claudette’s unknown path quickly forced natural gas and oil producers on Friday to begin implementing preventative measures on their Gulf platforms, including production shut-ins and employee evacuations. One forecaster warned that Western and Central Gulf Hubs could be in trouble come Tuesday morning.

Northern Natural Gas declared force majeure at its Hugoton (KS) Compressor Station as a result of tornado damage Thursday night. The entire station was shut down, affecting about 50,000 MMBtu/d at the Hugoton N&S, Stevens County #4 and Stevens County #6 points. NNG estimated that a return to service would occur “sometime in the p.m.” Saturday (May 17).

There was no change in status Tuesday for a CIG rupture that occurred Sunday night in Weld County, CO (see Daily GPI, March 25), according to a pipeline spokesman. The company still anticipates there will be no interruptions in service and will post a bulletin board notice when repairs are completed, he said.

NGPL expected to complete planned maintenance on Compressor Station 343 in Liberty County, TX on its Louisiana Line (see Daily GPI, Dec. 3) by Thursday night. Capacity will be back to normal in Segment 25 for Friday’s gas day, the pipeline said.