Shippers

Citing the current weather forecast and projected system demand, Sonat notified shippers Monday that eight market-area groups (Birmingham Group, South Main Zone 2, Atlanta Group, South Main Zone 3, East of Wrens, South Georgia-Lee County, Brunswick Group and Savannah Group) will be subject to an OFO Type 3 effective with the start of today’s gas day (Wednesday) until further notice. Concurrent with the OFO, Sonat also will be allocating/limiting interruptible capacity in the Chattanooga Group, East Tennessee Group and North Alabama Group.

Gulf South lifted Tuesday morning an Operational Flow Order that had been issued Saturday to require shippers to immediately conform actual receipts with actual deliveries. All Operational Balancing Agreements that had been suspended Sunday morning also were reinstated “unless otherwise provided.” Gulf South said the OFO had been issued because its system could not tolerate any further imbalances.

Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline (Maritimes) said it received nominations for 1.7 Bcf/d of new transportation capacity on the Canadian portion of its pipeline system and 1.3 Bcf/d on the U.S. portion in an open season for its proposed $380 million Phase IV expansion project. Local distribution companies, gas-fired electric generators and third-party marketers were among those submitting substantial requests for transportation services, indicating a sizable market for natural gas reserves from eastern Canada, Maritimes said.

MRT advised shippers Tuesday that effective immediately it is not accepting nominations that create a long imbalance on its system. Customers with current long positions are expected to correct their imbalance by the end of this week and to remain in balance for the rest of July. No-notice customers were reminded that they may change their no-notice option and allow storage injections to eliminate their imbalance.

Citing significant market area demand, Florida Gas Transmission advised shippers Friday to be watchful over the weekend for a potential Overage Alert Day notice.

Northwest issued a recall advisory to shippers Wednesday and gave notice of a potential OFO and Declared Stage II (8%) Overrun Entitlement. “Net scheduled quantities have regularly exceeded the available physical capacity through the Kemmerer [WY] Compressor Station, even with the additional capacity provided by portable compression,” the pipeline’s bulletin board said. “Forward pricing does not indicate that this overscheduling pressure will decrease during the summer. Northwest has been accommodating the excess quantities by injecting gas into Clay Basin and withdrawing gas from Jackson Prairie. Heavy drafting during the first two weeks of April coupled with the overscheduling since February have depleted Northwest’s Jackson Prairie inventories.” The pipeline plans to use a portion of physical capacity through Kemmerer to realign its balancing storage gas and to move fuel gas as required. If scheduled volumes continue to exceed remaining available physical capacity through Kemererer, the OFO will be issued to be become effective next Tuesday, Northwest said. Because the potential for drafting increases during an OFO, it will concurrently entitle its system for overruns. See the bulletin board for further details.

FERC last week approved a contested settlement in whichTennessee Gas Pipeline agreed to offer discounted transportationrates to shippers using the Perryville, LA, hub. This action isintended to further the development of Perryville as a marketcenter.

Westcoast Energy reported yesterday that shippers fully renewedall firm service on its Southern mainline, as well as on keysegments of its Northern mainline. The announcement comes afterWestcoast last September said it was extending the shipper renewaldate to Jan. 31 for service beginning on Nov. 1.

Northern Natural Gas declared a System Overrun LimitationThursday for all market area zones.