River

With thousands of coalbed methane (CBM) wells covering the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and hundreds of drilling permits still to be reviewed, the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has been working overtime and short staffed to review the huge backlog of permits, and contend with complex out-of-date regulations at the same time.

Due to the extent of work required at Muddy Gap Compressor Station (see Daily GPI, Dec. 27, 2002), throughput on the Wind River Lateral is expected to stay restricted to 225 MMcf/d through Monday (Jan. 6), returning to normal for Tuesday’s Cycle 1 nominations, CIG said. It had previously expected to complete the repairs Friday. The lateral extends from CIG’s Lost Cabin Compressor Station to the Rawlins Compressor Station.

CIG declared force majeure due to unscheduled maintenance at Muddy Gap Compressor Station and reduced available capacity on its Wind River Lateral in central Wyoming to 225 MMcf/d Thursday until further notice. The duration of the Muddy Gap work is unknown but is anticipated to continue through Jan. 3, CIG said.

CIG declared a force majeure condition Friday at its Elk Basin Compressor Station located on the Wind River Lateral in Park County, WY. A compressor engine had to be taken out of service for repairs. CIG estimates that the outage will last at least 30 days. It anticipates being able to flow 47,000 Dth/d through the station, but said any impact to service will depend on any given day’s nominations.

Kern River reported being informed by affiliate Williams Field Services that Jonah Field operators will perform maintenance at Byrd Canyon #2 today. Nominations at the WFS-operated Opal Plant will be reduced in the timely cycle. The total tailgate impact is estimated at 103,000 dekatherms.

A Williams corporate spokesman said Thursday a Kern River bulletin board report, saying Jonah Field equipment problems had caused restrictions on field throughput to the Opal Plant operated by affiliate Williams Field Services, was in error. “There was a nominations snafu,” the spokesperson quoted a WFS dispatcher as saying, but no equipment problem. The plant was processing about 650 MMcf/d Thursday, which was pretty typical throughput, he said. Total Opal capacity is 730 MMcf/d.

Due to high acid gas volumes at the inlet of Pine River Gas Plant impacting some shippers’ firm entitlement/production, Westcoast reduced the plant’s acid gas capacity volume Thursday morning to about 91.4 MMcf/d until further notice.

Kern River reported being informed by affiliate Williams Field Services that Opal Plant was experiencing gas quality issues involving high water content at the tailgate. WFS was cutting Opal nominations in the Intraday 2 process Monday. The plant dropped 85 MMcf Monday from its normal throughput of about 740 MMcf/d, a WFS spokesman said, but the situation was improving Tuesday and any further loss was expected to be minimal.

Total Opal Plant tailgate nominations to interconnecting pipelines (Northwest, Kern River and CIG) will be cut by 350,000-370,000 dekatherms today due to tie-in work being performed by the operator of the Jonah Field. In conjunction with the Jonah work, Williams Field Services has scheduled a tie-in to be completed by Thursday morning, but it is not expected to required any additional reductions in nominations.