Pipeline

Williams has completed the sale of three straddle plants in southern Alberta to Inter Pipeline Fund of Calgary for C$715 million (US$536 million). The sale includes Williams’ 100% ownership interest in the Cochrane and Empress II plants, and Williams’ 50% ownership interest in the Empress V facility. The sale does not include Williams’ olefins business that extracts natural gas liquids and olefins from oil sands refining near Fort McMurray, AB. The liquids are then fractionated into various products at a Williams facility near Redwater, AB. In addition to the proceeds from the sale, the transaction will release approximately $30 million in U.S. funds of letters of credit and prepayments back to Williams by the end of the year. Williams expects to record an estimated pre-tax gain of $190 million in U.S. funds on the sale, which will be reported in discontinued operations in its third quarter financial results.

Operator Northern Natural Gas declared force majeure after detecting a leak in the 20-inch mainline of Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System (MOPS) near the platform at Mustang Island 787. Offshore maintenance crews were responding, NNG said in a bulletin board posting late Thursday afternoon, and the Mustang Island 782, 785, 787, 803 and A-16 receipt points were to be shut in sometime during Friday’s gas day. Duration of the outage has not yet been determined, it said.

The pace and scale of negative rating actions in the United States utility industry (electric, gas, pipeline, and water companies) have significantly diminished following a tumultuous three years, according to a report published Thursday by Standard & Poor’s Rating Services (S&P).

Williams said late Wednesday that it had completed the sale of three straddle plants in southern Alberta to Inter Pipeline Fund of Calgary for C$715 million (US$536 million). The sale includes Williams’ 100% ownership interest in the Cochrane and Empress II plants, and Williams’ 50% ownership interest in the Empress V facility.

Devon Energy Corp. has signed an agreement to sell 1,800 miles of gas gathering pipelines and related compression, a gas plant and four treating plants in East Texas to an affiliate of Energy Transfer Partners LP for an undisclosed amount.

Devon Energy Corp. has signed an agreement to sell 1,800 miles of gas gathering pipelines and related compression, a gas plant and four treating plants in East Texas to an affiliate of Energy Transfer Partners LP for an undisclosed amount.

Florida Gas Transmission issued an Overage Alert Day notice Thursday with 25% tolerance for negative daily imbalances. The pipeline’s previous OAD ended last Saturday.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission found no evidence that natural gas traders were responsible for the run-up in gas prices during the cold snap in the New England markets last January, the head of the agency’s Office of Market Oversight and Investigations (OMOI) told a group of state regulators Monday.

CIG declared a Strained Operating Condition (SOC) for its Uintah and Parachute Laterals, effective last Saturday until further notice. The pipeline said that due to a high rate of unconfirmed transactions at Uintah delivery points, it “has recently experienced a critical oversupply situation on that portion of its system, resulting in higher than desired pressures and operating problems for the attached production areas.” The capacity limitations on Uintah and Parachute in turn restricted CIG’s ability to handle imbalances caused by unconfirmed nominations in that area. The SOC requires that all transactions in the affected segments be in balance between receipts and deliveries. CIG said it does not anticipate a need to issue an OFO as long as market and supply balance can be managed on the laterals.