Occurred

NGPL said a line failure occurred Saturday on one of its three mainlines in Washington County, KS, between Compressor Stations 195 and 106 on the Amarillo System. Repairs are under way. There was no impact to shippers due to the pipeline’s operational flexibility in the area, NGPL said.

NGPL said the start of integrity testing on its mainline Segment 2 where a pipe failure occurred earlier this month (see Daily GPI, Aug. 13) has been delayed by one day to Friday instead of Thursday as previously planned. The testing is still expected to last approximately six weeks. As it progresses, various receipt points will become unavailable for receipt of gas into the pipeline. Once a point is impacted, it may remain unavailable until the entire Segment 2 has been returned to service, NGPL said. However, the actual in-service dates for each point may vary depending on the progress of the testing. See the bulletin board for a schedule of points being shut in and related transport restrictions.

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.

It was off to the races again in the Northeast Monday as multi-dollar spikes occurred at most citygates. But such strength was at odds with the general market, which showed a moderate bias to the upside in a mix of averages that ranged to about 20 cents up or down from flat.

The steep gas production declines that occurred in the first quarter apparently did not continue in the second quarter, according to a preliminary survey of producer forecasts by Lehman Brothers. The survey of 45 producers indicates that production in the Lower 48 states will be roughly flat with first quarter levels, said Lehman analyst Thomas Driscoll, who believes producers have been quicker to respond to price signals since the sharp price spikes in 2000.

Williams’ affiliates Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line and Williams Field Services (WFS) manipulated the cost of gathering services by wielding their “collective market power” over the interstate gas transportation path through the spun-down North Padre Island (NPI) facilities and Transco’s IT-feeder system, according to an initial decision issued by Administrative Law Judge Lawrence Brenner.

TransCanada said an unplanned outage occurred Tuesday at Station 211 due to exhaust problems with the C compressor unit. It expects to return 211C to service Friday. Due to increased demand at Niagara, discretionary service on the Kirkwall Lateral is being restricted. Diversions to Niagara and Douglastown may be affected, including diversions from Douglastown to Niagara, the pipeline said.

A spokeswoman with Mirant Corp. told NGI on Wednesday that an explosion occurred at Unit 5 of the company’s 447 MW Lovett power station in Tompkins Cove, NY. The blast injured one employee and shut down the entire generating facility, spokeswoman Jamie Stephenson said.

Mirant Corp. said on Thursday that while it “clearly regretted” the explosion that occurred at 11:45 a.m. on May 16 at Unit #5 of its 447 MW New York plant in Tomkins Cove, near Stony Point (see Daily GPI, May 17), it would like to emphasize that there is no evidence the explosion has posed, or is posing any sort of threat to public health or safety.