Northwest

After tightening the negative imbalance tolerance Tuesday from 25% to 10% in the 11th day of an Overage Alert, Florida Gas Transmission allowed the Overage Alert to expire Wednesday.

Prices sank as low as about 35 cents into Northwest-South of Green River and to less than a dollar at a few other Rockies points as weakness returned to a majority of the cash market Monday. Seasonal springtime weather, with its lack of either heating load or cooling load to any significant degree, was chiefly responsible. The previous Friday’s drop of 2 cents by May futures was an additional bearish element.

TGT said it reduced capacity Tuesday on the Sharon Carthage Segment in northwest Louisiana and at Texas Eastern (location 2757) to 500,000 MMBtu/d due to unscheduled maintenance at Sharon (LA) Compressor Station. TGT tentatively estimates that the maintenance will be completed by the start of Saturday’s gas day.

The Pacific Northwest’s continued below-freezing temperatures pushed Bellevue, WA-based Puget Sound Energy (PSE) to another record natural gas sendout Friday, surpassing one the utility set earlier in the week. PSE said natural gas demand hit 780,000 MMBtu on Friday, compared to 755,881 MMBtu last Tuesday.

A stubborn cold front that has enveloped the Pacific Northwest sparked record natural gas and electricity sendouts for Bellevue, WA-based Puget Sound Energy (PSE) Tuesday, eclipsing a power demand marker that had stood for a decade, according to the combination utility. With forecasts for continued colder-than-normal temperatures in western Washington state, PSE was advising its customers to use power and gas wisely.

Questar Corp. subsidiary Questar Exploration and Production (E&P) Co. has completed the company’s first operated Haynesville Shale horizontal wells in northwest Louisiana. The Waerstad #3, located in Red River Parish, was placed on production at an initial rate of 16 MMcf/d on a 23/64-inch choke with 6,400 pounds per square inch (psi) flowing casing pressure. Eight fracture stimulation stages were pumped in the 3,234-foot horizontal lateral. Questar E&P has a 100% working interest in the Waerstad #3 well. The Wiggins 36H- #1, located in Bienville Parish, was placed on production at an initial rate of 7.4 MMcf/d on a 22/64-inch choke with 5,450 psi flowing casing pressure. Nine fracture stimulation stages were pumped in the 3,455-foot horizontal lateral. Questar E&P has a 62% working interest in the Wiggins 36H- #1 well. The E&P unit also is drilling two additional company-operated Haynesville horizontals and is participating in four other wells that are in various stages of completion. Questar E&P has 31,000 net acres of leasehold in the Elm Grove, Woodardville and Thorn Lake areas of the northwestern part of the state.

As new supplies of gas from the Barnett Shale and Bossier Sands in Texas, the Haynesville Shale in northwest Louisiana, the Woodford Shale in southeastern Oklahoma and the Fayetteville Shale in northeast Arkansas continue to ramp up, Perryville, located in northeastern Louisiana, finds itself ideally situated as a gathering place to store and move the gas to markets in the Midwest, Northeast and Southeast.

El Paso’s Wyoming Interstate Co. LTD. (WIC) last Tuesday filed an application seeking authorization to construct a 230 MDth/d compression expansion of its Piceance Lateral in Northwest Colorado.

El Paso’s Wyoming Interstate Co. LTD. (WIC) Tuesday filed an application seeking authorization to construct a 230 MDth/d compression expansion of its Piceance Lateral in Northwest Colorado.