Processing

Industrial natural gas consumers have called on a House appropriations subcommittee to increase the U.S. Forest Service’s budget for permit processing by $18 million in fiscal 2007 to spur oil and gas activity in the Rocky Mountain West region.

After reporting Thursday that the Amerada Hess-operated Sea Robin Processing Plant had resumed operations again that afternoon for the first time since shutting down during the passage of Hurricane Rita last fall (see Daily GPI, March 24), Sea Robin Pipeline said the plant had been shut down again Friday morning until further notice.

Discovery Gas Transmission, LLC, recently finalized an interconnect agreement to flow approximately 300,000 Dt/d from Discovery’s Larose, LA processing plant into Gulf South Pipeline. Construction of the interconnect should be completed and gas flowing in May 2006.

The Sid Richardson purchase includes 4,000 miles of natural gas and gas liquids pipe in the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico, about 450 MMcf/d of cryogenic processing capacity among six interconnected plants, 930 MMcf/d of high-pressure treating capacity and a gas liquids and gas marketing operation based in Houston and Fort Worth.

Aux Sable will sell all of the natural gas liquids from Chicago gas processing facility to BP under a binding memorandum of agreement between the major producer and Enbridge Inc., which owns 42.7% of Aux Sable. The Aux Sable plant is located at the delivery end of the Alliance Pipeline, which transports natural gas and liquids 1,900 miles from western Canada to the Midwest.

The U.S. Coast Guard and the Maritime Administration (MARAD) announced the cancellation of all actions related to the processing of a deepwater port license application for ExxonMobil’s proposed Pearl Crossing LNG Terminal offshore Louisiana. The action includes cancellation of all activities related to the preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS) and is in response to ExxonMobil’s decision to withdraw the application. The company said earlier this year that it would pursue development of its proposed onshore terminals, which already have received certification from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. ExxonMobil spokesman Bob Davis said the main concern with the offshore terminal was the controversy over the open rack vaporization process, which uses large amounts of sea water to vaporize the LNG and may have undesirable environmental consequences. In a Federal Register notice, MARAD said the cancellation of all actions related to the application was effective Oct. 19. The $1 billion LNG project would have been located 41 miles off the coast of Louisiana in West Cameron Block 220 and would have included a 1 Bcf/d pipeline to the coast.

The U.S. Coast Guard reported in a Federal Register notice Tuesday that it has stopped processing an environmental assessment of Chevron’s onshore work associated with its Port Pelican liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal offshore southwest Louisiana. Chevron had planned to conduct fabrication activities for the gravity-based structure onshore at Port Aransas in Nueces County, TX, but the company has decided not to renew a lease on the site because it has not lined up LNG supply for the project.

TEPPCO has scheduled a concurrent Bird Station shutdown and Pioneer processing facility turnaround in the Jonah Gathering Field to occur both Oct. 5 and Oct. 12. According to the Kern River bulletin board, TEPPCO has estimated that each day’s work will require downtime of approximately 15 hours and an estimated curtailment of 753 MMcf. Because most Kern River supply comes to it either through the Opal Plant downstream of Jonah or the Pioneer receipt points, there will be an impact to Kern River shippers. During TEPPCO’s Oct. 5 maintenance, Kern River will take the opportunity to complete semi-annual maintenance on Fillmore Station’s Unit #2, previously scheduled for Oct. 19, and the Warm Springs Station hot tap, previously scheduled for Oct. 20. The pipeline asked shippers and operators to align their supplies with markets so that no banking occurred Tuesday (in preparation for the Oct. 5 work) and no drafting occurs on Oct. 5.

Questar said Friday it was unable to deliver to TransColorado at their Greasewood interconnect due to mechanical problems associated with the processing facility at this location. The problems were expected to be corrected by Monday, Questar said, but it was not accepting Greasewood nominations for the gas days of Saturday and Sunday. “Questar is doing everything possible to have this delivery available for the Southern System line work” that begins Monday (see Daily GPI, Aug. 10), the pipeline said.