Reduction

The deteriorating U.S. economy and uncertainty of what lies ahead have prompted fears of a huge reduction in natural gas demand. However, energy analysts are making the case for both bears and bulls in 2009.

The deteriorating U.S. economy and uncertainty of what lies ahead have prompted fears of a huge reduction in natural gas demand. However, energy analysts are making the case for both the bears and the bulls in 2009.

Charlotte, NC-based Piedmont Natural Gas Co. filed for a reduction in its rates for customers in North Carolina and South Carolina. The filings with the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) and South Carolina’s Public Service Commission (PSC) seek to lower the wholesale cost of gas benchmark contained within rates in each state and follow recent declines in the wholesale cost of gas.

Citing “a significant reduction in primary nominations” through the Meacham Compressor Station, Northwest lifted the Realignment OFO through the station Wednesday. Northwest also said it had ended a Declared Deficiency Period at the Caldwell Compressor Station Tuesday.

Plummeting crude values, a near-term reduction in weather-related demand, a strong showing from the U.S. dollar and less risk from Hurricane Bertha combined on Tuesday to help August natural gas futures record its second consecutive day of a 60-cent decline. The prompt-month contract recorded a late regular session low of $12.355 before closing out the day at $12.368, down 60.9 cents from Monday’s finish.

The Hess Corp.-operated Sea Robin Gas Processing Plant was shut in late Tuesday morning, according to a notice by Sea Robin Pipeline. The pipeline reduced Plant Volume Reduction nominations by two-thirds for Wednesday’s gas day and said they would be cut to zero Thursday for the duration of the plant outage, during which gas will continue to be dehydrated. Shippers were encouraged to call downstream delivery point operators to see if they will be accepting gas from Sea Robin Pipeline during this outage.

Michigan Consolidated Gas (MichCon), DTE Energy’s natural gas utility, will ring in the New Year with a 6.7% rate reduction for 1.2 million customers in Michigan, the company said Thursday.

Devon Energy Corp. has a long “to-do” list of exploration activities planned in North America this year, and “we’d have to see a fairly large reduction in prices” before pulling back on any planned exploration, President John Richels said last week. “We’re taking the longer-term view, and we’re very confident that we’ll see higher prices this year on the gas and oil side.”

ANR said Friday morning it had completed unplanned maintenance at Havensville Compressor Station and was lifting the associated Southwest Mainline capacity reduction (see Daily GPI, Dec. 28) effective with the next intraday nominations cycle.