Perform

Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska Inc., Doyon Drilling Inc. and Akita Drilling Ltd. signed a four-year contract to build and operate a rig to perform exploratory drilling services on the North Slope of Alaska. The rig will be built in Canada during the summer of 2005 and operated beginning in 2006 by the newly formed Joint Venture-Doyon Akita J.V. This is a long term drilling contract for a new rig on the North Slope of Alaska.

Transco will perform piping modifications at North Padre Island Block A42 beginning Thursday. The work is expected to last two days; during that time no flow will be allowed at North Padre Island Blocks 892/893 and A12 or at Mustang Island Blocks 31A and 31B.

Kern River reported being informed by affiliate Williams Field Services that Jonah Field operators will perform maintenance at Byrd Canyon #2 today. Nominations at the WFS-operated Opal Plant will be reduced in the timely cycle. The total tailgate impact is estimated at 103,000 dekatherms.

Tennessee will perform pipeline modifications Oct. 14-24 to the 500 Line at the Yscloskey Gas Processing Plant, located near Main Line Valve 529 in southeast Louisiana. The work will not impact available capacity on the 500 Line, but the Eloi Bay meter will be out of service during the entire period. In addition, Tennessee will be unable to deliver gas to Yscloskey for processing starting Oct. 14. On or about Oct. 18, Tennessee anticipates resuming deliveries of about 600 MMcf/d to Yscloskey, with full deliveries due again after Oct. 24.

ANR will perform maintenance Sept. 1 on the 8-inch Sheboygan Lateral (Line 385) in Wisconsin. The work will cause a one-day outage of the Sheboygan meter station. Citing a delay, ANR postponed work on the Burlington Lateral, also in Wisconsin, which had previously been scheduled for Friday and Saturday of last week (see Daily GPI, Aug. 17). The maintenance now will be performed on the 4-inch Line 325 today and on the 8-inch Line 325-1 Wednesday. A minimal reduction in capacity to the Burlington delivery point may occur Wednesday, ANR said.

Koch Gateway will perform maintenance Tuesday on its 30-inchWest Line (Index 129) southwest of Houston from mile pole 137.34 tomile pole 148.60. Capacity southwest of the work may be reduced by100 MMcf/d that day, the pipeline said. Capacity through KochGateway’s Napoleonville (LA) Compressor Station has been cut by 100MMcf/d until further notice due to unscheduled repairs being madethere.

ÿTranswestern will perform maintenance today on units atStations 1, 2 and 3, reducing West of Thoreau capacity by about100,000 MMBtu/d.

NGPL will perform annual maintenance Tuesday through Friday on aunit at Compressor Station 167 (Lea County, NM), reducing areacapacity by about 21,000 MMBtu/d. Depending on nomination levels,only a limited amount of ITS/AOR service may be scheduled for gasreceived in the Permian Zone’s Segments 7, 8 or 9 and deliveredoutside the Permian Zone. The pipeline has scheduled a constructionshutdown of its Old Ocean Lateral for April 27-29. Eight points inBrazoria County, TX, and one in Matagorda County, TX, must takenominations to zero during the outage.

Williams share prices slid 5% but then rebounded late last weekand analysts adjusted their earnings forecasts following anannouncement that the company expects third quarter earnings pershare to be “substantially below” current Wall Street estimates of20 cents/share. The company said a change in accounting standardsand cooler than normal temperatures in Southern California, itsmajor power sales area, were to blame. But that’s just half thestory.