Northwest

While water levels in the Pacific Northwest, remaining winter weather in the East and even the advent of war with Iraq all could impact this summer’s natural gas and electricity prices in Nevada, Las Vegas-based Southwest Gas Corp. officials indicated Monday they are not overly concerned. They do admit the short-term future is unclear because of the many widely diverse variables involved.

Documents furnished by PG&E Gas Transmission-Northwest Corp. (PG&E-GTN) to FERC fail to “conclusively establish” that the pipeline can demand one year of reservation charges as collateral from non-creditworthy shippers to guarantee continued transportation service, according to Denver, CO-based e prime Inc., a subsidiary of Xcel Energy.

Documents furnished by PG&E Gas Transmission-Northwest Corp. (PG&E-GTN) to FERC fail to “conclusively establish” that the pipeline can demand one year of reservation charges as collateral from non-creditworthy shippers to guarantee continued transportation service, according to Denver, CO-based e prime Inc., a subsidiary of Xcel Energy.

PG&E Transmission, Northwest Corp. (PG&E-GTN) was correct last fall when it determined that Denver, CO-based marketer, e prime Inc., was no longer creditworthy under the pipeline’s tariff guidelines, and threatened to suspend service to the company, according to FERC. However, the agency has deferred ruling on whether PG&E-GTN had the authority to demand from e prime a 12-month pre-payment of charges to continue as a shipper.

Devon Energy completed a major expansion of its Bridgeport Gas Processing Plant northwest of Fort Worth, TX, adding 200 MMcf/d of inlet gas processing capacity to process rapidly growing production from the Barnett Shale formation in the Fort Worth Basin, which Devon inherited from Mitchell Energy following its purchase of the company last summer (see Daily GPI, Aug. 15).

Pacific Gas & Electric declared a systemwide Stage 2 high-inventory OFO for Saturday. Penalties are $1/Dth for positive imbalances exceeding a 7% tolerance.

PG&E Gas Transmission-Northwest (GTN) began scheduled maintenance Friday on the B unit of Station 9, which limits that station’s throughput to 1,970 MMcf/d and consequent capacity at Station 14 just upstream of Malin to 1,940 MMcf/d. Normal capacity is expected to be restored Feb. 26.

Northwest said it shut in the Piceance Quick Cycle receipt point Wednesday because of substandard gas quality. Supplies received from Piceance Quick Cycle were exceeding the pipeline’s hydrocarbon dew point limit of 25 degrees F.

Total Opal Plant tailgate nominations to interconnecting pipelines (Northwest, Kern River and CIG) will be cut by 350,000-370,000 dekatherms today due to tie-in work being performed by the operator of the Jonah Field. In conjunction with the Jonah work, Williams Field Services has scheduled a tie-in to be completed by Thursday morning, but it is not expected to required any additional reductions in nominations.