Notice

Northern Natural Gas said the System Underrun Limitation notice that it implemented Sept. 22 for both market and field areas (see Daily GPI, Sept. 21) will be lifted Wednesday.

The Department of Agriculture’s U.S. Forest Service on Monday published a notice of intent in the Federal Register (Vol. 74, No. 118) to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) as part of its proposal to enact federal drilling rules within the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania. More than 90% of the mineral rights under the national forest land are privately owned, and the Forest Service previously did not require an environmental analysis, as mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act. Pennsylvania’s energy industry and some state officials are suing the Forest Service to prevent the rules from being enacted (see Daily GPI, June 11). The draft EIS is expected in January 2010, with the final EIS expected in April 2010. Comments are due by Aug. 21 and may be sent to comments-eastern-allegheny@fs.fed.us. The subject line should read “Transition EIS.”

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has issued a notice of intent and called for comments on a proposed determination that IntercontinentalExchange’s Henry Hub lookalike contract, the Henry Financial LD1 Fixed Price contract, qualifies as a significant price discovery contract (SPDC) in the natural gas market and therefore should be subject to reporting rules and position limits applicable to designated contract markets such as Henry Hub futures contracts offered by the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex).

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has issued a notice of intent and called for comments on a proposed determination that IntercontinentalExchange’s Henry Hub lookalike contract, the Henry Financial LD1 Fixed Price contract, qualifies as a significant price discovery contract (SPDC) in the natural gas market and therefore should be subject to reporting rules and position limits applicable to designated contract markets such as Henry Hub futures contracts offered by the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex).

Citing forecasts of cold weather, MRT said a System Protection Warning (SPW) would become effective Sunday until further notice. MRT will not schedule volumes that result in a daily short position by zone in either the market or field zones anywhere on its system while the SPW is in effect.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is seeking comments on an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANOPR) that would review whether to eliminate the bona fide hedge exemption for swap dealers, which applied only to certain agricultural commodities, and replace it with a conditional limited risk management exemption that could extend to energy and metal commodities.

Dominion said it would implement Conform Transportation Services to Schedule Nominations and FTNN (Firm Transportation No-Notice) Hourly Limit OFOs for its PL-1 service area in the Mid-Atlantic effective with the start of Monday’s gas day. The same two OFOs will be applied at the start of Tuesday’s gas day to several New York state utility meters. See the bulletin board for OFO conditions and requirements.

Northern Natural Gas is allowing two System Overrun Limitations to lapse Wednesday.

Southern Natural Gas will implement an OFO Type 6 for short imbalances effective Friday until further notice. No penalty will apply to short imbalances up to 2% or 200 Dth, whichever is greater; tiered penalties were set for larger imbalances. Saying forecasts indicated “significantly colder weather” in its service area from Wednesday evening through Saturday, Southern told customers that “based on current supplies and anticipated demand,” it expected its storage withdrawal capability to be exceeded “by approximately 540 MMcf” for Thursday’s gas day. It also said that based on supply patterns from recent high-throughput days, it will be evaluating and potentially allocating receipt points west of Enterprise Compressor Station, which is on its south mainline in southern Mississippi. Fifteen receipt groups (see the bulletin board for a list) could be impacted, Southern said. It combined them into “newly defined parent group” 181-West of Enterprise Supply Group.