Rita

ANR said it completed its Hurricane Rita related damage assessment of its West Cameron 167-to-Grand Chenier pipeline segment and related facilities. Due to damages ANR is declaring a force majeure event in this area of its system. ANR continues not to accept any nominations through Grand Chenier. It is pursuing temporary solutions to provide partial service of these facilities in the very near future. ANR said it experienced close to a 66% loss in deliverability on its Gulf system but because it sources significant supplies from the Mid-Continent and Canadian basins it has been able to maintain market deliveries. As a result of damage to its system, ANR has to replace subsea pipe and connections in the South Marsh Island 108 area and it has to repair the measurement and a separation and dehydration plant in the Grand Chenier area. It expects to restore 100% of its throughput by December.

In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Duke Energy’s Texas Eastern Transmission pipeline signaled Wednesday it will be more aggressive this winter than in the past in monitoring its system to ensure customers don’t withdraw more than they put into the system.

In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the chief energy policymaker in the Senate last Thursday called on the Bush administration to seriously consider opening the gas-rich Lease 181 areas in the eastern Gulf of Mexico to production, saying the action was warranted in light of a potential natural gas shortage and unprecedented high prices that were expected during the upcoming winter heating season. Top industry executives, reeling from the effects of the twin hurricanes, shared those concerns.

In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the chief energy policymaker in the Senate warned the nation Thursday to expect a potential natural gas shortage and unprecedented high prices during the upcoming winter heating season. Top industry executives, reeling from the effects of the twin hurricanes, shared those concerns.

As oil and natural gas infrastructure continues to limp back to service following Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, many eyes in the natural gas industry are focused on the Henry Hub near Erath, LA, a physical delivery point that is used as a benchmark for the Nymex futures contract. The hub has been offline since Sept. 22, and no one will even speculate on when it will be back to normal (see Daily GPI, Sept. 27, Sept. 28, Oct. 6).

After being offline since Sept. 22 due to storm damage and flooding from Hurricane Rita, Sabine Pipe Line LLC said it has lifted the force majeure for various interconnects on its system (see Daily GPI, Sept. 27). As a result, the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) said Tuesday it is lifting the force majeure condition for both September and October 2005 natural gas futures contract delivery obligations, effective for gas day Oct. 5 (see Daily GPI, Sept. 28).

The slow recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the Gulf Coast region and Gulf of Mexico continued Tuesday with total gas production shut-ins onshore and offshore finally dropping below 8 Bcf/d, according to a report from Golden, CO-based Bentek Energy. Bentek, which is tracking gas production nominations on the region’s major pipeline systems, said shuts-ins totaled about 7,766 MMcf/d on Tuesday, down from 8,003 MMcf/d on Monday and 8,208 MMcf/d on Sunday.

Still trying to make heads or tails on what the long-term repercussions from Hurricane Rita will be, November natural gas futures stayed in a fairly tight range Monday before settling at $14.017, up 9.6 cents from Friday.

In light of the potential effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on fuel supplies and tightening supplies of natural gas in the Northeast generally, ISO New England (ISO-NE) “is becoming increasingly concerned about the operational reliability of the New England system during the upcoming winter,” the grid operator disclosed in a recent filing submitted to federal energy regulators [ER03-563-053].