Period

Effective Wednesday, Northwest is lifting a customer-specific Declared Overrun Entitlement Period for overtakes that was issued Nov. 4 (see Daily GPI, Nov. 5). Thanking customers for their cooperation, Northwest said its Jackson Prairie Storage account “is returning to adequate winter storage levels and Kemmerer’s north throughput flow is being reduced.”

Devon Energy Corp.’s 98% drilling success, combined with the completed sales of $239 million in non-strategic assets, guided the Oklahoma City-based independent above estimated earnings per share (EPS) and cash flow targets in the third quarter.

Devon Energy Corp.’s 98% drilling success, combined with the completed sales of $239 million in non-strategic assets, guided the Oklahoma City-based independent above estimated earnings per share (EPS) and cash flow targets in the third quarter.

For the winter billing period of November through April, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said Thursday its 3.8 million residential customers will receive baseline volume increases of 5% to 26% for the lowest natural gas rates that it charges.

LJM2 Co-Investment, which entered into 26 transactions with Enron Corp. over a two-year period to help conceal debt and move assets off of its balance sheet, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Wednesday in Dallas. It was nearly one year ago that the infamous LJM entities first became news, after it was disclosed that they all had been set and managed until June 2001 by former CFO Andrew Fastow, who allegedly made more than $30 million on the side from the special purpose entities (see Daily GPI, Oct. 17, 2001; Oct. 24, 2001).

Over a one-month period last summer, Chuck Watson, the former chairman and CEO of Dynegy, apparently sold off a substantial amount of shares he was holding in the fallen energy merchant. According to a series of filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), more than 5 million shares of Watson’s Dynegy stock were sold between June and July.

Northwest warned shippers that based on available data, it may need to invoke a Declared Overrun Entitlement Period as early as Tuesday. The entitlement would apply to delivery points north of Kemmerer (WY) Compressor Station, which is considered a longtime bottleneck on the pipeline’s system. Northwest explained Thursday that over the past few months it has allowed shippers to draft the system on a limited basis to work off their Receiving Party imbalances. But during the past week the drafting has been excessive, it continued, and as documented in daily bulletin board reports, Northwest’s balance at the Jackson Prairie storage facility “is rapidly decreasing.” Also, maintenance scheduled for Tuesday and Friday of this week and on Sept. 4 (see Daily GPI, Aug. 23) will require that Northwest rely on storage to balance the system. The storage activities on the maintenance days likely will involve withdrawals from Jackson Prairie and injections into Questar’s Clay Basin facility. Northwest’s storage account must be full on Sept. 30, as required by the Jackson Prairie partnership agreement.

Northwest said it expects a Declared Deficiency Period to be in effect at milepost 240 near Grand Junction, CO for next Tuesday’s gas day. The pipeline’s tariff defines a DDP as beginning “on the day when aggregate nominations using constraint point firm rights exceed constraint point actual capacity and Transporter is unable to schedule otherwise acceptable nominations due to scheduled or unscheduled maintenance.” Northwest will be replacing pipe for about 30 hours Tuesday at anomaly locations identified in a recent pigging project. There will be no mainline flow between milepost 232 and milepost 240 during the work. Similar projects are planned for Aug. 30 and Sept. 4 (see Daily GPI, Aug. 21).

Citing high linepack on its system, Tennessee issued a Critical Period-Imbalances alert Friday. Excessive positive imbalances could jeopardize its operational integrity, the pipeline said. All LMS and SA contracts must be nominated and scheduled in balance to avoid the necessity of (1) adjusting receipts or deliveries; and/or 2) issuing a systemwide OFO, Tennessee said.