Segment

Dominion Resources Inc.’s net income in the final quarter of 2006 plunged 88% from a year ago, with the volatile exploration and production (E&P) segment posting an 83.6% drop in earnings compared with a year earlier. Dominion E&P, which the CEO said is “on track” to be sold by the end of 2Q2007, is rumored to be drawing the interest of private equity players, global oil and gas majors and several U.S.-based independents.

With volatile swings and record high prices over the past few years, the segment that “Enron made famous — energy trading — is springing to life again,” according to a new report by Dublin, Ireland-based Research and Markets.

With volatile swings and record high prices over the past few years, the segment that “Enron made famous — energy trading — is springing to life again,” according to a new report by Dublin, Ireland-based Research and Markets.

ANR said late Friday it had returned the 22-inch diameter line between Main Line Valves 82 and 83 in Cass County, MI to service. The 24-inch diameter line in the same segment remains isolated until further notice while ANR continues inspection and repairs on it due to a force majeure event arising from third-party damage (see Daily GPI, Dec. 21). Restoring service on the 22-inch line allowed ANR to raise the capacity of Bridgman East CFTP to 1,091 MMcf/d; with both lines out the capacity had been limited to 650 MMcf/d. However, based on current nominations, the pipeline still anticipates that the larger capacity may result in curtailment of nominations associated with Firm Secondary and IT services through Bridgman East CFTP.

Southern California Gas, which recently exited a segment outage on Line 4000 that caused a 700 MMcf/d reduction of border receipt capacity (see Daily GPI, Dec. 7), said it will isolate the line again Friday from Newberry to Main Line Valve 12 (a total of 36 miles) to repair a leak. The will cause a one-day capacity loss of 690 MMcf/d at the Topock, North Needles and Questar border points, leaving total combined throughput not to exceed 650 MMcf/d, SoCalGas said.

ANR Pipeline said it must repair an engine at the St. John Compressor Station in Indiana in the Northern Fuel Segment (ML-7) that will reduce St. John west-to-east capacity by 115 MMcf/d (leaving 1,190 MMcf/d available) through Dec. 18. Based on current nominations, the outage could result in the curtailment of firm secondary and IT nominations, ANR said.

Last week the Texas Railroad Commission (TRC) sent its recommendations for competition reforms in the midstream gas segment to the state’s governor and legislature. However, the proposed changes do not address the problems at hand, says one producer group.

Due to a required but unplanned pipeline inspection, ANR restricted its segment between the E.G. Hill and Custer Compressor Stations in the Southwest Gathering Area to 200 MMcf/d Wednesday. “At this time, it is anticipated this restriction will be in place through the weekend or until more information becomes available,” ANR said. Based on recent nominations, it expected that the reduction would result in the curtailment of nominations associated with IT and Firm Catalog Receipt Points in the affected area.

NGPL said its Gulf Coast system was at capacity Tuesday for northbound flow upstream and through Station 309 (Segment 27), and ITS/AOR transportation was at risk of not getting fully scheduled. Based on anticipated level of high nominations due to the cold weather in the Market Delivery Zone the availability of this service is extremely unlikely, the pipeline said. Secondary out-of-path transportation is at risk of not getting fully scheduled on Wednesday, it added. It will be requiring withdrawals from NSS to be on an in-the-path transportation.