Pipeline

When the natural gas industry looks back at 2005, it will show that Congress made significant headway on pipeline, storage and liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure issues, but it made little, if any, progress in the area of expanding gas supply, industry officials say.

Operating conditions related to low linepack on the El Paso system stabilized to the point that the pipeline was able to lift Friday the Critical Operating Condition (COC) that it had declared the day before (see Daily GPI, Dec. 9). “With temperatures moderating, receipt volumes appear to be recovering and demand continues to decline,” El Paso said in a bulletin board posting. “System linepack is still low and Washington Ranch Storage Facility is still on withdrawal at maximum capacity. As a result, rather than completely canceling the COC, El Paso is lowering it to a Strained Operating Condition” with a 10% imbalance threshold. Shippers would be allowed to submit make-up nominations Saturday to correct any shortfalls encountered during Friday’s gas day, it added.

El Paso’s Southern Natural pipeline, which serves the southeastern United States, is increasing access to liquefied natural gas (LNG) arriving from Trinidad at El Paso’s Elba Island import terminal near Savannah, GA, this winter to make up for at least part of the natural gas production that has been lost since the twin hurricanes battered the Gulf Coast.

Canada’s National Energy Board approved several rate changes on Duke Energy Gas Transmission, Westcoast Energy pipeline system in British Columbia. The changes include firm transportation service enhancements in Zone 3 (Mainline Transportation North) and Zone 4 (Mainline Transportation South) that will include term-differentiated firm service tolls, authorized overrun service and daily cross-corridor crediting in Zone 3.

In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Duke Energy’s Texas Eastern Transmission pipeline signaled Wednesday it will be more aggressive this winter than in the past in monitoring its system to ensure customers don’t withdraw more than they put into the system.

Northwest said issued a declared deficiency period beginning Sept. 8, 2005 and lasting 24 hours. The pipeline is replacing several segments of its mainline containing anomalies that were discovered earlier this year. The segments are located just north of the Cisco Compressor Station between milepost 195 and milepost 213. Since there will be no flow through the mainline during the deficiency period, Northwest will cut nominations to zero. Grand Gas Receipt, Harley Dome Delivery, and Grand Valley Receipt will be shut-in.

Tennessee Gas Pipeline said that due to nominations in excess of the available capacity it anticipates the restrictions Tuesday at the Niagara River Meter. It anticipates restricting through 58% of supply to market secondary out of the path nominations sourced from the Niagara River Meter. It will not accept any supply to market increases sourced from the Niagara River Meter and also will not accept any supply to market increases into the Zone 0/100 leg pool.

The Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System has determined that it does not have a leak on its 24-inch mainline (see Daily GPI, Aug. 5), operator Northern Natural Gas said. A force majeure situation on MOPS was canceled. NNG also said operational conditions on its East Leg had improved Friday, so it canceled a System Overrun Limitation for delivery points east of Belleville (WI) Station (see Daily GPI, Aug. 5).

Columbia Gulf has scheduled maintenance at Egan Hub Storage in South Louisiana for Tuesday, during which capacity will be zero. The pipeline said it would resume accepting up to 150,000 Dth/d in injection/withdrawal nominations Wednesday.