Shippers

NiSource Gas Transmission & Storage (NGT&S) officials, saying natural gas shippers showed a strong interest in new storage and transportation capacity at a storage field south of Columbus, OH, during a recent nonbinding open season, announced last Tuesday that they will hold a binding open season until July 31.

Despite new bouts of colder weather approaching in some areas and pipelines reintroducing OFO-like actions or pleading for shippers to stay in balance, prices softened Monday at a large majority of points. Strong increases at New England citygates (handily topped by Iroquois Zone 2’s $2.75 gain) and smaller ones at a couple of other scattered points ran against the grain of overall declines ranging from about a nickel to 40 cents.

FERC last Thursday set for evidentiary hearing and instituted a Section 5 investigation of Southwest Gas Storage’s rates for jurisdictional storage services, which shippers on affiliate Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line, industry associations and customer advocate groups allege are “unjust and unreasonable.”

FERC Thursday set for evidentiary hearing and instituted a Section 5 investigation of Southwest Gas Storage’s rates for jurisdictional storage services, which shippers on affiliate Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line, industry associations and customer advocate groups allege are “unjust and unreasonable.”

Northwest cautioned shippers Thursday that its efforts to avoid declaring an OFO through the Kemmerer (WY) Compressor Station by using its limited storage flexibility at the Jackson Prairie and Clay Basin facilities are weakening because its Jackson Prairie inventory has been depleted to less than 1.1 Bcf. “North-flow firm scheduled volumes through Kemmerer continue to be above design capacity and Northwest is starting to see some customer drafting” north of Kemmerer, the pipeline said. To protect its Jackson Prairie account balance, Northwest said it may declare customer-specific or system entitlements for overruns for receiving parties north of Kemmerer. Northwest also asked customers who owe gas to the pipeline on their receiving party contracts to arrange paybacks of the imbalance as soon as possible. “Northwest will continue to cut alternate gas as necessary to preserve primary firm service or to move balancing gas from Clay Basin to Jackson Prairie where appropriate, and encourages customers to secure adequate supplies from Canadian supply sources, particularly Sumas, during cold periods in order to avoid entitlements and OFOs,” it said.

Dusting off an almost five-year-old project, Williams said Friday it has executed precedent agreements with seven shippers to transport an additional 142,000 Dth/d of natural gas to growing markets in the Northeast on the company’s Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) from the existing Transco/Cove Point interconnect in Virginia and the Leidy Hub in Pennsylvania. The Sentinel expansion will be operational in November 2008.

High line pack exists on Kern River’s entire system. Shippers and operators were asked by the pipeline Monday to stay on rate.

Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line shippers, industry associations and customer advocate groups have accused Panhandle affiliate Southwest Gas Storage of charging “unjust and unreasonable” rates for jurisdictional storage services, and have called on FERC to act quickly to provide some rate relief.

Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line shippers, industry associations and customer advocate groups have accused Panhandle affiliate Southwest Gas Storage of charging “unjust and unreasonable” rates for jurisdictional storage services, and have called on FERC to act quickly to provide some rate relief.