Platform

Concern surrounding the delay in restarting the Independence Hub natural gas deepwater production platform in the Gulf of Mexico gave bulls a little boost overnight Tuesday and into Wednesday as June natural gas futures recorded an overnight high for the move of $11.794 before closing out Wednesday’s regular session at $11.598, up 17.6 cents from Tuesday’s close.

IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), a leading electronic energy trading platform, Friday assailed congressional Democrats’ “hastily submitted” legislative proposals that it says place “arbitrary controls” on regulated energy futures markets.

Enterprise Products Partners LP said production through the Independence Hub gas platform in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico has reached approximately 600 MMcf/d from 10 wells. As the initial 15 wells are brought on line, producers expect that production at the Independence Hub will be at or near its capacity of 1 Bcf/d by the end of 2007 (see Daily GPI, Sept. 7; July 23; March 9).

The New York Mercantile Exchange said it set daily volume records for natural gas, heating oil and RBOB gasoline futures on the CME Globex electronic trading platform Wednesday. The new gas futures totals broke a record set just one day earlier. Natural gas futures trading on Globex on Wednesday reached a record 137,562 contracts, exceeding the 130,627 contracts traded on Tuesday. Heating oil futures totaled 72,676 contracts, surpassing the 63,577 contracts traded on Jan. 12. And RBOB gasoline futures traded 52,032 contracts, beating the 49,969 contracts traded on Jan. 9. Globex trading volumes now regularly represent more than 70% of the total physically settled Nymex energy futures contracts. Nymex launched its physically settled futures contracts for trading on Globex during regular open outcry trading hours on Sept. 5, 2006, following its initial offering of financially settled, standard-sized and miNY energy futures contracts for trading on Globex on June 12.

Just a day after the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) set record daily volumes in its contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s (CME) Globex trading platform, all Nymex contracts listed on the system went dark for an hour Thursday due to a “software issue” in the Globex system, the CME told NGI.

Just a day after the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) set record daily volumes in its contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s (CME) Globex trading platform, all Nymex contracts listed on the system went dark for an hour Thursday due to a “software issue” in the Globex system, the CME told NGI.

Sea Robin Pipeline reported completion of pigging operations on its mainline from the offshore Vermilion 149 platform into Erath Station in South Louisiana, and said Wednesday the onshore liquid separation facility operated by Devon Energy is no longer restricting flows (see Daily GPI, May 10). Normal operating pressures have been restored, Sea Robin said.

Citing logistics setbacks, Northern Natural Gas (NNG) said Sunday it is now anticipating return to service of platforms downstream of the Matagorda 758 platform on the Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System (MOPS) sometime during Wednesday’s gas day. NNG, the operator of MOPS, said this schedule is contingent on any other weather or logistics issues. Upon closure of the subsea valve at Matagorda 758, there will be three upstream platforms that must remain shut in until all repairs are completed, NNG said. Prior to the weekend it had anticipated the possible restoration of some service in the leak-affected segment of MOPS by the start of Tuesday’s gas day (see Daily GPI, March 6).

Columbia Gulf reported discovering a leak on its 20-inch line upstream of the Eugene Island 250 platform in the Block 264 area. It said Eugene Island 331B, 314B, 314C, 314A and 271, where Columbia Gulf and Tennessee both have meters, and Eugene Island 294A, 338A, 315A and 316A, where Tennessee has the sole meter, will be required to shut in once repairs begin. No timetable for the repair startup had been set as of Friday afternoon, a spokesman said.