Remained

Shut in natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico because of damage from Hurricane Ivan has remained at about 1.5 Bcf/d for about a week. The Minerals Management Service reported Monday that a cumulative 98.7 Bcf of gas was deferred because of damage from the hurricane and shut-ins remain at 1,517 MMcf/d, or about 12% of total daily Gulf gas production.

Florida Gas Transmission issued a new Overage Alert Day notice Sunday with 25% tolerance for negative daily imbalances. The notice remained in effect at least through Monday.

BP plc remained atop the leader board for physical natural gas sales in North America in the first quarter, with 24.5 Bcf/d in gas sales, a 22% hike year-over-year. Sempra Energy retained second place, gaining 1% in gas sales over 1Q2003.

BP plc remained atop the leader board for physical natural gas sales in North America in the first quarter, with 24.5 Bcf/d in gas sales, a 22% hike year-over-year. Sempra Energy retained second place, gaining 1% in gas sales over 1Q2003.

Florida Gas Transmission issued an Overage Alert Day notice for its market area Saturday that remained in place through at least Monday. The tolerance for negative daily imbalances was set at 25%.

Despite the fact that trading volumes remained light due to Passover and upcoming Good Friday, May natural gas futures shimmied up 6.3 cents to close at $5.872, halting a two-day stretch during which the daily changes were less than a penny.

Natural gas futures Wednesday remained locked in a battle between the competing forces of fundamental bearishness and technical bullishness. Buyers were the first to exert their influence Wednesday, propelling the prompt month to a $4.90 high in the first 35 minutes of trading. Bears battled back, however, and rerouted the market to the downside ahead of Thursday’s release of fresh storage data. December futures closed at $4.738, down 12.7 cents for the session.

Although several major wildfires still raged Friday, particularly in the mountains east of Los Angeles and San Diego, the region’s natural gas infrastructure escaped virtually unaffected by California’s worst outbreak of fires in recent memory. Three major distribution networks and one intra-state backbone transmission system traverse the heavily gas-dependent Southern California area.

The two units at Trailblazer’s Compressor Station 602 in Lincoln County, CO remained out of service Thursday until further notice due to “a sudden mechanical/electrical failure.” Trailblazer has declared force majeure and said the completion date of repairs remains unknown. ITS/AOR and Secondary out-of-path transportation through the station are not available for scheduling. Primary and Secondary in-the-path firm nominated volumes will be prorated based on the shipper’s contract MDQ (Maximum Daily Quantity), the pipeline said.