Shippers

Maritimes Canada natural gas consumers should consider taking up to 600 MMcf/d of firm pipeline capacity from the Marcellus Shale to ensure security of supply and avoid the $30/MMBtu gas prices seen last winter, ICF Consulting Canada Inc. said in a new study prepared for the Nova Scotia Department of Energy.

Inergy LP’s Tres Palacios 20-mile header pipeline extension is now in service, allowing shippers to transport up to 300 MMcf/d of natural gas from the tailgate of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP’s Houston Central gas processing plant in Colorado County, TX, to the Tres Palacios gas storage facility. The 24-inch diameter extension also enables delivery of gas from the Houston Central plant to any of the 10 interstate and intrastate pipelines interconnected with the Tres Palacios header system. “Beyond providing Eagle Ford Shale producers with significant new market options, we believe our new Houston Central interconnection will increase liquidity at the Tres Palacios hub point for marketers to access supply,” said Bruce Page, Tres Palacios vice president for commercial operations and business development. The Houston Central plant provides 700 MMcf/d of processing capacity and 22,000 b/d of fractionation capacity and is being expanded to process an additional 400-800 MMcf/d of rich gas from the Eagle Ford Shale.

UGI Energy Services Inc. and Capitol Energy Ventures Corp. have taken firm capacity on the proposed Commonwealth Pipeline, making them anchor shippers on the project, which is sponsored by Inergy Midstream LP, UGI Energy and Capitol Energy. The contracts are for 10 years at negotiated rates. Commonwealth would provide a path for bringing gas produced in the Marcellus and Utica shale plays to markets in central and southeastern Pennsylvania and the greater Mid-Atlantic region (see Shale Daily, May 8). The proposed interstate pipeline will consist initially of 120 miles of 30-inch diameter pipeline extending from the southern terminus of the Inergy Midstream’s MARC I Pipeline in Lycoming County, PA, to several points of interconnection in southeastern Pennsylvania with other interstate pipelines, including NiSource Gas Transmission and Storage, Texas Eastern Transmission Co., Transco Pipeline, and Eastern Shore Natural Gas Co.

With energy demand high and producers climbing over each other in the Marcellus Shale region, the Northeast remains “ripe with bottlenecks,” and it’s likely to get more congested before natural gas infrastructure is completed, Williams CEO Alan Armstrong said Wednesday.

A group of municipal gas utilities has called on Congress to pass legislation to reform Section 5 of the Natural Gas Act (NGA) so that shippers can receive retroactive refunds for over-collections of rates by interstate natural gas pipelines. The request was accompanied by a recent study estimating that pipelines over-recovered more than $4 billion from their customers over a five-year period.

A group of municipal gas utilities has called on Congress to pass legislation to reform Section 5 of the Natural Gas Act (NGA) so that shippers can receive retroactive refunds for over-collections of rates by interstate natural gas pipelines. Its request was accompanied by a recent study estimating that pipelines over-recovered more than $4 billion from their customers over a five-year period.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC), which oversees game and wildlife in the state, has called on FERC to revoke eminent domain authority for Central New York Oil & Gas Co. LLC (CNYOG) to seize state land to build the MARC I Hub Line project in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Southern California Gas did not extend a high-linepack OFO beyond Saturday.

El Paso warned shippers of a potential Strained Operating Condition (SOC) being declared due to high linepack caused by actual takes below scheduled deliveries and supply basin receipts in excess of scheduled volumes. The Washington Range storage facility is in maximum injection mode, El Paso said, and it has contacted two points about their actual takes versus scheduled volumes and the possibility of them being subjected to a location-specific SOC.