Scheduled

A Natural Gas Subcommittee of the Interior Department’s Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Policy Committee is scheduled to submit recommendations this week for a pilot program that would allow limited drilling on the five top natural gas geologic plays currently in offshore moratoria areas. The proposed pilot is among a host of other measures designed to encourage the production of natural gas on the OCS, encourage energy alternatives to natural gas, and increase conservation measures. If approved it could be one of the first concrete steps in furthering the administration’s pledge to clear barriers to developing the full U.S. resource base.

FERC announced yesterday that it has scheduled a public conference for later this month to address the state of “current and projected” interstate gas pipeline capacity to the California market, as well as explore what is driving the higher gas prices in the southern end of the state.

PG&E Gas Transmission-Northwest said scheduled Station 3 maintenance (see Daily GPI, April 23) is causing a greater restriction than anticipated. Starting with Thursday’s Intra-day 1 cycle and effective until further notice, Kingsgate capacity was further limited to 2,220 MMcf/d.

Maintenance at the Sable Offshore Energy Processing Plant that had been scheduled for April 16-19 (see Daily GPI, April 2) was postponed. The tentative work period now is from midnight April 18 to midnight April 20. Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline expects only about 35% of capacity to be available for deliveries during that time. Full system capabilities are anticipated for April 21.

The largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in the United States just received authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to become even larger. CMS Trunkline LNG will expand the peak send-out capacity of its terminal in Lake Charles, LA, this summer to 1 Bcf/d from 700 MMcf/d (see NGI, Feb. 26).

The largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in the United States just received authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to become even larger. CMS Trunkline LNG will expand the peak send-out capacity of its terminal in Lake Charles, LA, this summer to 1 Bcf/d from 700 MMcf/d (see Daily GPI, Feb. 22).

El Paso declared an Unauthorized Overpull Penalty situationTuesday and said it will limit scheduled volumes at underperforminginterconnects to preserve system integrity. The pipeline alsopostponed pigging of Line 3201 in San Juan Basin (see Daily GPI,Dec. 19) by one more day to Dec. 28.

Koch Gateway is performing both scheduled and unscheduledmaintenance at its Jackson (MS) Compressor Station. Work on units#3 and #4 has been completed, unit #2 will remain unavailable untilDec. 10, reducing station capacity by 75 MMcf/d.

Northwest noted that despite putting its system into entitlementand issuing a realignment OFO, primary scheduled volumes throughKemmerer (WY) Station remain greater than physical capacity.Therefore, starting today the pipeline is invoking a “must-flowOFO” provision of its tariff. Until further notice, shippers withprimary corridor rights southbound through Kemmerer are required toflow up to 10% of their contract demand from receipt points northof Kemmerer to delivery points south of Kemmerer or take some othermutually agreeable action to alleviate the Kemmerer capacityproblem. See the Northwest bulletin board for details.