Repairs

Supportive crude prices, no update on the Independence Hub repairs and the first year-on-five-year average storage deficit in almost four years continued to push natural gas futures higher in Tuesday’s trade, but not high enough to break out of the recent trading range. After recording the day’s high of $10.280 in morning trade, May natural gas futures put in a low of $10.165 before closing out Tuesday’s regular session at $10.205, up 15.2 cents from Monday’s close.

Transwestern said a force majeure event at Compressor Station 2 near Flagstaff, AZ, caused the station to be taken out of service for repairs during the weekend. The outage is reducing Thoreau/West system capacity from to about 1,075,000 MMBtu/d through Tuesday, the pipeline said. It expects to restore Thoreau/West to its original capacity of 1,220,000 MMBtu/d Wednesday.

ANR began unplanned engine repairs Wednesday at Joliet (IL) Compressor Station, reducing the total NGPL-Joliet Interconnect capacity to 90,000 Dth/d through Jan. 18. Based on current nominations, it is anticipated that the reduction will result in the curtailment of IT and Firm Secondary nominations.

ANR began unplanned engine repairs Tuesday at Bridgman (MI) Compressor Station in Michigan. The work reduces total St. John west-to-east capacity by 150 MMcf/d (leaving 1,155 MMcf/d available) through Jan. 2. Based on current nominations along the Michigan Legs, ANR said, it is anticipated that the reduction may result in the curtailment of IT and Firm Secondary nominations.

ANR began unplanned engine repairs Tuesday at Sardis Compressor Station in Mississippi that are expected to continue through Friday. The work is reducing total Southeast Mainline capacity by 300 MMcf/d, leaving 1,100 MMcf/d available. Based on current nominations, it is anticipated that the reduction may result in the curtailment of Interruptible and Firm Secondary services, ANR said.

Noting that it is currently repairing leaks in the TL-264 segment, Dominion said Tuesday it was hoping to make the repairs without shutting in production. However, line pressures behind Cornwell Station got too high and it became necessary that production in bubbles 2207, 3225 and 3226 behind Cornwell’s No. 9 unit and in bubbles 2205 and 2206 behind Cornwell’s No. 7 and 8 units be shut in immediately until further notice.

MRT lifted Thursday a System Protection Warning that had been in effect for the previous two days.

Tennessee indicated that repairs to correct problems caused by liquids entering Station 823 may be proceeding faster than expected. Barring any unexpected issues, Tennessee said Friday, it anticipated that the work would be complete in two to three days; on Wednesday it had estimated “five to 10 days” (see Daily GPI, April 19). As a result, the pipeline saw a good chance of restrictions through Station 823 being lifted by the end of the weekend. Tennessee said that as an alternative, it had analyzed the possibility of activating the Seahawk meter. “However, after further investigation, Tennessee has determined that opening the Seahawk meter is not a viable option due to a lack of flow control in the area. Without flow control, the possibility of free flowing liquids into Tennessee’s system at Grand Chenier and Kinder is too great a risk.” In an effort to assist customers in moving their gas off the Tennessee system, it was offering discounts at six meters and said “any other mutually agreeable meters upstream of Station 823” could be used.

ANR said Thursday morning it had completed engine repairs at Sandwich Compressor Station and would lift the associated capacity restrictions for the next available nominations cycle.