Pipeline

NGPL reported experiencing an unexpected pipeline outageSaturday south of Station 304 on the Gulf Coast Mainline. Untilfurther notice NGPL is unable to flow volumes from six receiptpoints in Panola County, TX.

Not content to converge just with electricity, the gas industryis turning to telecommunications. Specifically, pipelines arefinding their rights of way make sense for the routing offiber-optic telecommunications cable.

Mojave Pipeline reversed an earlier bulletin board posting (see Daily GPI, June 16), emphasizing that itwould “not” shut in part of its West Lateral Thursday and cause theshut-ins of “17Z”-labeled interconnects with Chevron, Mobil, Shell andTexaco. However, Mojave said, a maintenance shut-in of the Oxy 17Zinterconnect was to proceed as scheduled Thursday and today.

Palmetto Interstate Pipeline Co., a partnership of SouthernNatural and Carolina Power & Light, said it is extending itsopen season for firm transportation capacity on its proposed systemuntil June 30. Interested parties should contact Sonat’s MarkLimbaugh at (800) 633-8570 or CP&L’s Rob Caldwell at (919)546-4552. Palmetto is planning to build a line that would run fromSonat’s terminus in Aiken, SC, to an interconnect with NorthCarolina Natural Gas – which is being purchased by CP&L – inRoberson, NC. CP&L plans to subscribe for a substantial portionof Palmetto’s 200 MMcf/d to 300 MMcf/d capacity to fuel newelectric generation being developed in the Carolinas, with theremainder to be used to increase regional gas availability.CP&L said it plans to build 4,000 MW of gas-fueled generationin the Carolinas by 2007. Palmetto said it plans to have Phase I ofits system in service in April 2002 with up to 300 MMcf/d ofcapacity. Two later phases in the following two years would addcapacity to the system.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals remanded Friday a FERCdecision approving a 20-year cap on bids for Tennessee Gas Pipelinecapacity that are considered under the net-present-value approach.The Process Gas Consumers Group (PGC), which includes industrialgas users, challenged the Commission order, arguing that it failedto engage in “reasoned decision-making” by allowing the cap on theNPV bids. “…..[W]e find FERC’s reasoning on the cap to beunpersuasive and largely conclusory,” the court opined [No.98-1075]. The court said it didn’t “quarrel” with the goal behindthe Commission’s approval of the NPV capacity-allocation method forTennessee, “but [we] remind FERC of its admitted need to balancethe goal with its duty to prevent exploitation of Tennessee’smonopoly power. FERC appears to have forgotten the latter…..” PGCalso took issue with FERC’s decision allowing Tennessee to applyNPV to shippers attempting to change primary receipt and deliverypoints, and the court agreed with industrials on this point. Thecourt ordered the Commission to “better explain or modify” itsapproval of both issues.

Transwestern Pipeline has filed an application with FERC tobuild a new 10,000 hp compressor station near Thoreau, NM, off ofits San Juan Lateral and to add facilities to its Bloomfield and LaPlata compressor stations. The $11.6 million project will providean additional 50 MMcf/d of firm transportation service on the SanJuan Lateral downstream of the Bloomfield compressor station andwill allow Transwestern to operate its mainline at its certificatedcapacity of 1.1 Bcf/d on a firm basis.

Transwestern Pipeline has filed an application with FERC tobuild a new 10,000 hp compressor station near Thoreau, NM, off ofits San Juan Lateral and to add facilities to its Bloomfield and LaPlata compressor stations. The $11.6 million project will providean additional 50 MMcf/d of firm transportation service on the SanJuan Lateral downstream of the Bloomfield compressor station andwill allow Transwestern to operate its mainline at its certificatedcapacity of 1.1 Bcf/d on a firm basis.

Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline officials began constructionof the 203-mile mainline that will extend from outside theU.S.-Canada border near Baileyville, ME, to Westbrook, ME.Maritimes and its Canadian affiliate will transport gas from theSable Offshore Energy Project off the coast of Nova Scotia tomarkets in Atlantic Canada and the Northeast U.S. Constructionbegins with the clearing and grading of the right-of-way along thedesignated route followed thereafter by ditching and pipeinstallation. Earlier this year, Maritimes successfully completedthe horizontal directional drill crossings of the Androscoggin andSt. Croix Rivers.

KN has scheduled an outage on its Pony Express line forTuesday’s gas day, according to Williams Gas Pipeline Central.Williams will not accept nominations at the KN-Glavin interconnectin Franklin County, KS, for that period.