Restrictions

Tennessee Gas maintained an operational flow order for Wednesday due to nominations in excess of available capacity in Zone 0 and at Niagara. It placed restrictions on deliveries to Station 40 and at its Niagara River Meter. Tennessee also said it will not accept any increases pathed through MLV 528, excluding the header on the Bluewater system and the TTT line 523M-2300 from Eugene Island 365 to Ship Shoal 198. It restricted flow through Station 834. For details see its pipeline bulletin board. Tennessee also confirmed leaks on its 26-inch diameter pipeline at Ship Shoal 157 and Ship Shoal 144. Divers are assessing the damage. Its mainline valve 528 remains shut in due to water at the Port Sulphur Compressor Station (Station 527). It also incurred damage in the South Timbalier area on several lines (524J-100, 524J-600, and 524J-800) and has leaks on the 524C-100 line and the 524C-600 line. Tennessee said it has survey boats inspecting the West Delta, South Pass, and Main Pass areas. It determined that the meters on the Blue Water Header (from Vermillion 245 to Ship Shoal 198) as well as the TTT line 523M-2300 (from Eugene Island 365 to Ship Shoal 198) are available and can begin flowing. The east leg of the Blue Water system remains shut-in. Therefore, gas that would typically be processed at the Yscloskey processing plant will now be flowing on the Blue Water header in a westerly direction and will require processing at the Blue Water Plant. Producers flowing on this portion of the Blue Water system with a hydrocarbon dew point greater than 20 degrees must sign a processing agreement with the Blue Water plant immediately.

Tennessee Gas Pipeline said that due to nominations in excess of the available capacity it anticipates the restrictions Tuesday at the Niagara River Meter. It anticipates restricting through 58% of supply to market secondary out of the path nominations sourced from the Niagara River Meter. It will not accept any supply to market increases sourced from the Niagara River Meter and also will not accept any supply to market increases into the Zone 0/100 leg pool.

Transco said restrictions on pool scheduling tolerances and due-shipper imbalance make-ups, implemented Jan. 21, would be lifted effective Sunday (Jan. 30). Tolerances were to be restored from the 1% limit to the normal 4%, and due-shipper transactions would be allowed again. Transco said it also would begin accepting excess storage withdrawal requests under Rate Schedules GSS or WSS Sunday, but would not accept requests for additional loan activity or return of parked gas under Rate Schedule PAL.

While many pipelines had holiday weekend restrictions in place to deal with extra-cold weather, it was a different situation for Florida Gas Transmission. Saying market area temperatures were forecasted to be mild and linepack was higher, FGT issued an Underage Alert Day notice Thursday with 20% tolerance for positive daily imbalances.

Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) last week asked FERC to identify any examples in which the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) has interfered with boosting supplies of natural gas to the Northeast. At the same time, a pipeline association urged legislation to streamline the CZMA processes.

Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) has asked FERC to identify any examples where the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) has interfered with boosting supplies of natural gas to the Northeast, at the same time a pipeline association urged legislation to streamline CZMA processes.

In an update of restrictions for Friday’s gas day, Texas Eastern had removed one cutting IT-1 deliveries into the M-3 market zone to zero. See the bulletin board for details.

FERC on Wednesday said both Trunkline Gas and ANR Pipeline have misused “critical notices” and operational flow orders (OFOs) to impose stricter quality limits for natural gas accepted into their systems, and ordered the two pipelines to stop the practices.

Adding to restrictions under its Critical Day 1 OFO Alert that took effect Tuesday, Tennessee said that beginning Wednesday all storage injections under Rate Schedule FS will be limited to the Maximum Daily Injection Quantity (MDIQ). This includes customers using Storage Swing Option (SSO) service under Rate Schedule LMSMA. A penalty of $5/Dth plus the applicable regional daily spot price will apply for volumes in excess of MDIQ.