Pipeline

Commenting on FERC’s Sept. 5 order overturning “monopolistic” offshore gas pipeline rates imposed by the Williams Companies, Apache Corp. said Friday that the decision is a victory for consumers and producers everywhere.

El Paso Corp. has settled five lawsuits arising from the fatal explosion on El Paso Natural Gas’ South Mainline system in New Mexico in August 2000, which killed 12 members of two extended families. Terms of the settlements were not disclosed.

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).

A day after confirming that a lateral leak near Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System (MOPS) Platform 703 had been repaired and an outage of the Matagorda 703/704/709 receipt point had ended last Saturday (see Daily GPI, Aug. 7), MOPS operator Northern Natural Gas reported Wednesday that a leak had been detected again on the lateral. Matagorda 703/704/709 was taken to zero flow again, affecting 22,000 MMBtu/d. The expected downtime is unknown, NNG said. NNG owner Dynegy did not respond to an inquiry about whether this was a new leak or a recurrence of the old one.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued accounting guidance on how jurisdictional natural gas pipeline and public utility affiliates should treat deposits and withdrawals from intra-corporate money pool arrangements. The clarification went into effect today (Aug. 1).

Repairs of a lateral leak (see Daily GPI, July 23) on Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System are expected to be complete by Friday, MOPS operator Northern Natural Gas said Tuesday morning. About 22,000 MMBtu/d is impacted by the shutdown of MOPS Platform 703.

Repairs of a lateral leak (see Daily GPI, July 23) on Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System are expected to be complete by Friday, MOPS operator Northern Natural Gas said Tuesday morning. About 22,000 MMBtu/d is impacted by the shutdown of MOPS Platform 703.

Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System (MOPS), operated by Northern Natural Gas, shut down Platform 703 Monday for unplanned maintenance after a leak was detected on the 16-inch lateral near the platform. The Matagorda 703/704/709 receipt point was taken to zero flow until further notice, affecting 22,000 MMBtu/d.

Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System (MOPS), operated by Northern Natural Gas, shut down Platform 703 Monday for unplanned maintenance after a leak was detected on the 16-inch lateral near the platform. The Matagorda 703/704/709 receipt point was taken to zero flow until further notice, affecting 22,000 MMBtu/d.