Shippers

Northwest cautioned shippers of the possibility of a deficiency day being declared during the upcoming four-day shutdown of the Clay Basin storage facility. Along with work scheduled by Clay Basin operator Questar, Northwest will be installing a new separator at its Clay Basin interconnect Wednesday and Thursday. Upon completion of the installation, Questar will perform a meter calibration beginning Friday and lasting through Saturday. There will also be no physical injections or withdrawals during all four days. “Due to the length of the combined outages, it is unlikely that Northwest will be able to mitigate any impacts to customer nominations,” the pipeline said. “Therefore, Clay Basin injection and withdrawal nominations must net to zero at the end of every cycle for gas days April 27 and 28. If primary nominations exceed a net of zero, a deficiency day will be declared and nominations will be cut accordingly.” Clay Basin is expected to return to full design capacity for Sunday’s gas day.

After cautioning shippers Monday that one might become necessary, Florida Gas Transmission went ahead and declared an Overage Alert Day notice Tuesday with 25% tolerance for negative daily imbalances. Forecasts indicate near-freezing temperatures in the northern half of Florida, FGT said.

Saying its system continues to experience low linepack conditions, Westcoast asked shippers Thursday to ensure that “any accounts in a drafted position are trending toward zero to a slight pack.” It also noted that colder weather is being forecast for the weekend in the British Columbia and Pacific Northwest regions. “Historically, during the first cold snap, production tends to be at risk of falling off,” Westcoast said, and if it observes that production has been lost, a shipper’s account availability may be reduced to match actual production.

Saying its system continues to experience low linepack conditions, Westcoast asked shippers Thursday to ensure that “any accounts in a drafted position are trending toward zero to a slight pack.” It also noted that colder weather is being forecast for the weekend in the British Columbia and Pacific Northwest regions. “Historically, during the first cold snap, production tends to be at risk of falling off,” Westcoast said, and if it observes that production has been lost, a shipper’s account availability may be reduced to match actual production.

Pacific Gas & Electric did not extend a systemwide high-inventory OFO beyond Wednesday.

Pacific Gas & Electric did not extend a systemwide high-inventory OFO beyond Wednesday.

El Paso subsidiary Southern Natural Gas told shippers on Monday that it probably will take four to six months to fix the seriously damaged pipelines and platforms east of Main Pass 298 offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Service on other portions of its system, including the South Pass 60 Line and the Mississippi Canyon 194 Line, should be restored much sooner.

Northern Border Pipeline Co. said Thursday it has received commitments from shippers to support a proposed 130 MMcf/d expansion of its system into the Chicago market area.

Northern Border Pipeline Co. said last Thursday it has received commitments from shippers to support a proposed 130 MMcf/d expansion of its system into the Chicago market area.