Problems

NGPL said gas quality problems that arose at two receipt points over the weekend have been resolved. It was scheduling at normal levels Monday for the Enogex-Latimer and EPGT-Panola points in Latimer County, OK and Panola County, TX respectively.

Four House committees and a Senate panel voted out energy bills last week that offer a host of financial and tax incentives for oil and natural gas producers, strengthen FERC’s enforcement hand somewhat in the energy markets and attempt once again to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to exploration and production activities.

Transwestern said Wednesday it was experiencing problems with the control valve and meter at the TransColorado interconnect on Transwestern’s San Juan Lateral. Transwestern allocated the point for Wednesday’s Intraday Cycles 1-3 and said shippers should monitor its Internet site for updates.

Already legally troubled Progress Energy Inc., Raleigh, NC, ran into more problems Thursday when the San Francisco city attorney sued the company for $300 million, alleging a predecessor of the company defaulted on an energy-saving contract for which the city’s schools had already paid more than $23 million.

Economic factors, plus low power prices, an ice storm, a rate refund and pension fund problems have led Standard & Poor’s (S&P) to revise the outlook for Duke Energy from stable to negative.

Florida Gas Transmission said it was having operational problems with pipe maintenance “due to extreme weather conditions,” and no receipts would be scheduled Wednesday at its Refugio, TX interconnect with the Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System, affecting about 102,000 MMBtu/d. MOPS operator Northern Natural Gas said its “current information is that it [Refugio flow] may not be back available” until Thursday.

Due to operational problems with high liquids on the Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System (MOPS) offshore Texas, all production on MOPS was shut in Tuesday until further notice. The action affected 50 MMcf/d into Florida Gas Transmission at their Refugio, TX interconnect and also affected unspecified amounts in force majeure declarations at MOPS’ MidCon Texas Pipeline and Koch Gateway (Gulf South) McFaddin delivery points.

Due to unforeseen problems with the #4 unit at Custer Station (see Daily GPI, Aug. 27), Reliant’s capacity on Line 2 will remain limited to 110,000 dth/day for an undetermined amount of time, the pipeline said Thursday. It also declared a force majeure due to unscheduled repairs on Delhi Compressor Station, which have limited deliveries to Columbia Gulf at Delhi to 240,000 Dth/d since Wednesday morning. Reliant estimated the Delhi repairs could take up to two days.

A year already marked by accounting problems and revelations of round-trip transactions preceded restatements of 2001 income last week by Reliant Energy Inc. and subsidiary Reliant Resources Inc. However, management warned that it is still reviewing other data on the phony deals, and ultimately plan to restate revenue, fuel and cost of natural gas and purchased power expenses for 1999, 2000 and 2001.