Ramping

Magnum Hunter Resources Inc. and its partners are ramping up more production from their Gulf of Mexico (GOM) leases, which is helping the Irving, TX-based independent continue a string of offshore success that overall will yield an additional 20 MMcfe of new net daily production beginning in the fourth quarter.

Ramping up for the April 1 kickoff of Michigan’s voluntary choice program in its service area, Michigan Consolidated Gas Co. (MichCon), a subsidiary of DTE Energy, is warning its customers that it is common for natural gas marketers to call and request account and other personal information.

After months of speculation in the industry, Alliance Pipelineconfirmed yesterday full commercial service will be delayed nearlya month until Oct. 30. When construction of the system wasscheduled nearly three years ago, Oct. 2 was the target date forcommercial service.

After months of speculation in the industry, Alliance Pipelineconfirmed last week full commercial service will be delayed nearlya month until Oct. 30. When construction of the system wasscheduled nearly three years ago, Oct. 2 was the target date forcommercial service.

Nominations for the trip to Chicago on Northern Border reached490 MMcf/d by the middle of last week, which shows the line hasbeen ramping up gradually since beginning service on Dec. 22. Butit still is about 175 MMcf/d short of being full. The 665 MMcf/dextension did not begin service near full capacity as pipelineofficials had predicted for a number of reasons, a spokeswomansaid. “The California market has been particularly strong the lastfew weeks. The delivery point at Sumas, WA, has been veryprice-positive for the Canadians so there’s been a huge amount ofgas going in that direction,” noted Northern Border’s Beth Jensen.There also was a set-back caused by water left in the linefollowing hydrostatic testing. “They did have some delivery pointsthat froze so we had to work those things out.” Unfortunately therewas a four-day period without gas flow just prior to bidweek, whichcreated market uncertainty entering the month and probably impactednominations. “The kinks in the system are being worked out,” shesaid. “Now nominations at Manhattan, IL, [into Peoples] are 340MMcf/d and at Minooka [into NiGas] are 150 MMcf/d. “Frankly I don’tthink the market in Chicago to this point has jelled. I think it’son its way to working out. But right now the market off of Ventura,IA, [into Northern Natural to Minnesota and western Wisconsin]seems to be as strong as anything. It’s been very cold up there.”Northern Border’s expansion/extension project increased take-awaycapacity at Ventura by 260 MMcf/d.