Shippers

Mid-America Pipeline Co. LLC has executed long-term transportation agreements with all but one of its current shippers on the Rocky Mountain Pipeline system to transport natural gas liquids (NGL) from the Rockies to either the Hobbs, NM fractionator or to Mont Belvieu, TX, via the Seminole pipeline system. The agreements, for at least 10 years and up to 20 years, are expected to help expand NGL transportation from the growing Rockies’ basins.

Northwest notified shippers Tuesday of a Declared Deficiency Period at the Green River South constraint point that it said could last through Thursday. Northwest had scheduled installation of pigging facilities on a section of the mainline near Green River South to begin Tuesday (see Daily GPI, July 20), and during the outage operational capacity through the constraint point is zero.

In a message to shippers Tuesday, Southern Natural President Jim Yardley highlighted the pipeline’s winter achievements following significant damage from last fall’s hurricanes. He said all firm transportation and storage service requests and nearly all interruptible requests were honored. A system-wide operational flow order (OFO) was required on only one gas day. And gas supply flowing through the offshore system in the Gulf of Mexico and the Toca, LA, compressor station, both of which were damaged heavily by Hurricane Katrina, is at or above pre-Katrina levels. Working storage inventory also is at historically high levels and likely will end the winter at levels well above last year, Yardley said. Meanwhile, repair work is expected to be completed at the end of April on remaining damaged laterals in the Gulf and on damaged compressor engines at Toca. Repairs to the Olga compressor station, southeast of New Orleans, have not been made.

Shippers of Northern Natural Gas Co. have attacked the pipeline’s proposal to sell 419 miles of pipeline facilities and compression assets in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas to Duke Energy Field Services LP (DEFS), and to reclassify the transmission facilities as non-jurisdictional gathering following the spin-off.

Shippers of Northern Natural Gas Co. have attacked the pipeline’s proposal to sell 419 miles of pipe facilities and compression assets in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas to Duke Energy Field Services LP. (DEFS), and to reclassify the transmission facilities as non-jurisdictional gathering following the spin-off.

NGPL reminded shippers of a change in acceptable hydrocarbon dew point (HDP) limits that will take effect Saturday until further notice. In a Dec. 13 posting it had reported experiencing an increase in the measured HDP temperature of gas flowing to its northern market area and said it must act to prevent unacceptable levels of hydrocarbon condensate in the market area as gas temperatures decrease over the winter months. Currently the pipeline has limits of 60 degrees or higher for the Gulf Coast system field zones, 70 degrees or higher for the Amarillo system field zones and 25 degrees or higher for the market area. Starting Saturday, absent mitigating action acceptable to NGPL, it will not confirm nominations of any gas source for receipt into the Gulf Coast system north of Station 302 in the TexOk rate zone that has an HDP temperature of 45oF or higher. The same action will be taken for any receipts into the Amarillo system’s Midcontinent or Permian rate zones that have an HDP temperature of 60 degrees or higher. See the bulletin board for further details.

Kern River said Tuesday it was able to avoid “same day cuts” for shippers despite supply shortages that occurred at Opal and Anschutz during Monday’s gas day, but the combination of these shortages and the drafting that occurred that day resulted in a “very low” linepack level throughout its system. If linepack dropped further Tuesday, the pipeline said it may be necessary for it to physically prevent further drafting Wednesday and to impose mandatory payback (by physically limiting deliveries) to parties that drafted Tuesday. “Please ensure that your supplies are sufficient to cover all your deliveries,” Kern River concluded in a note to customers.

Texas Eastern Transmission (Tetco) told shippers Thursday that it is in the process of building its new interconnection with Discovery Gas Transmission near the Larose Compressor Station that will open the door to about 250,000 Dth/d of offshore gas supply that, absent processing at the Discovery Larose Processing Plant, would not be accepted due to quality concerns. The connection is expected to be available prior to Nov. 30.

Columbia Gulf notified operators Monday at nine Eugene Island platforms where it and/or Tennessee has meters (see Daily GPI, Sept. 19) that they must shut in and take nominations to zero immediately in order to allow Columbia Gulf to make repairs to a leak on its 20-inch line in the Eugene Island 264 area. “Operators should not begin flowing gas until further notice,” Columbia Gulf said.