Repairs

Pacific Gas & Electric did not extend a high-inventory OFO beyond Saturday.

El Paso said there will be no withdrawals from its Washington Ranch storage facility through Friday while repairs are made to the dehydration plant’s fire tube. Washington Ranch’s #2 compressor was already down for maintenance through Oct. 17, limiting injections to about 75 MMcf/d. As a result of these maintenance projects, El Paso said it has lost a large degree of operational flexibility and will impose custody limits on delivery points and/or place caps on receipt point as needed to maintain system integrity.

Inter Pipeline Fund said its Empress II processing plant in Alberta is now fully operational after being down for repairs due to damage caused by a thunderstorm on the evening of June 23. Empress I is the only straddle plant out of six in the area that remains out of service, a BP Canada spokeswoman said. BP operates several of the facilities for Inter Pipeline Fund and others.

Although it appears that the badly listing Thunder Horse platform in the Gulf of Mexico may require extensive repairs after taking a severe beating by Hurricane Dennis, BP was taking an optimistic view on Wednesday. Meanwhile, other producers have nearly completed repopulating Gulf platforms and rigs, and the Minerals Management Service (MMS) has reported no other major damage to Gulf infrastructure. Gas production shut-ins have fallen to about 1 Bcf/d.

National Fuel Gas said its subsidiary, Horizon Energy Development BV, has agreed to sell its majority interest (85%) in United Energy for US$116.3 million to Czech Energy Holding, a company owned by Patrik Tkac, founder and partner of the J&T Group. United Energy is a district heating and electric generation business in the Bohemia region of the Czech Republic. The company expects the transaction to be completed before the end of its fiscal year. “We remain pleased with what we’ve accomplished in the Czech Republic, but given the strong value of the Czech currency and the number of unsolicited offers that we were receiving for our Czech assets, this appeared to be a good time to bring a successful end to our activities there,” said National Fuel CEO Philip C. Ackerman. National Fuel began its operations in the Czech Republic in 1996, when it first acquired a small district heating company and a project development company. After a number of additional acquisitions and mergers, United Energy, based in the city of Komorany, grew to be one of the largest independent producers of heat and electricity in the Czech Republic. National Fuel expects to realize a net nonrecurring gain of US$25 million, or $0.30 per diluted share, from the sale.

Weather is delaying leak repairs on the South Pass 77 527A-700 line, Tennessee said Wednesday, and it now expects to complete the first portion of the work Saturday. Last week Tennessee had anticipated being able to finish Wednesday (see Daily GPI, April 26). The South Pass 77A meter remains shut in during the project. It also will be required to shut in during additional work on the line that is scheduled for Sept. 19-26.

Columbia Gulf reported completion of repairs to a leak on its 20-inch offshore CNT Line upstream of the B side of the Eugene Island 250 platform. Operators were being allowed Wednesday to resume flow at eight meters — four where Columbia Gulf and Tennessee have connections at the same platforms and another four Tennessee meter locations that were affected when the leak was discovered last week (see Daily GPI, March 24).

Florida Gas Transmission lifted an Overage Alert Day notice Saturday.

FERC Commissioner Suedeen Kelly last Thursday said that the de-rating of the Pacific DC intertie on the West Coast for repairs and maintenance “is frightening” as California enters another summer of expected tight supplies. She said that the loss of the line is “going to lead to more congestion this year than last year — and that’s balanced against 4% load growth in California” as the state’s economy shows signs of rebounding.