Shut

Sonat completed shut-in testing Tuesday at its Bear Creek storage facility in North Louisiana and canceled the associated force majeure that had been in effect since April 1.

Sonat will declare force majeures in conjunction with shut-in tests scheduled at its two storage fields during April. Firm storage (CSS) customers will be allocated to 36% of their currently effective Daily Injection Quantity (DIQ) and Daily Withdrawal Quantity (DWQ) during April 1-7 work at the Muldon facility in Mississippi and to 64% of DIQ/DWQ during April 8-21 work at the Bear Creek facility in North Louisiana. These reduced levels of DIQ and DWQ are subject to change, if necessary.

Embattled CMS Energy welcomed in the New Year with more bad news for its employees — it plans to shut down its natural gas and electricity trading operations in Houston in early 2003.

Embattled CMS Energy is welcoming in the New Year with more bad news for its employees — it plans to shut down its natural gas and electricity trading operations in Houston in early 2003.

The Amerada Hess-operated Sea Robin Processing Plant will shut down Sept. 17 for maintenance expected to last seven to 10 days. The plant will continue dehydration operations during the outage. Sea Robin Pipeline estimates that the cutback in processing will cause its deliveries to downstream pipes Columbia Gulf and Sabine to exceed their maximum heating value requirements of 1,050 and 1,065 Btus per cubic foot respectively. Sea Robin Pipeline said that if it is notified by any other downstream pipeline operator that Sea Robin gas can no longer be accepted, it will provide as much notice as possible to shippers of the need to move their gas to other delivery points.

BP shut in 13 MMcf/d of production from its platform in Grand Isle Block 93 after an explosion and fire early Friday on a jack-up drilling rig nearby.

Coming as no surprise Thursday, Aquila Inc., which shut down its marketing and trading business earlier this week (see Daily GPI, Aug. 7), reported a loss of $5.69 per share for the second quarter, compared to earnings per share of $1.21 in the second quarter of 2001. The troubled Kansas City-based company took its lumps on its Quanta Services investment, company restructuring and lower commodity trading volumes and prices.

Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System (MOPS), operated by Northern Natural Gas, shut down Platform 703 Monday for unplanned maintenance after a leak was detected on the 16-inch lateral near the platform. The Matagorda 703/704/709 receipt point was taken to zero flow until further notice, affecting 22,000 MMBtu/d.

Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System (MOPS), operated by Northern Natural Gas, shut down Platform 703 Monday for unplanned maintenance after a leak was detected on the 16-inch lateral near the platform. The Matagorda 703/704/709 receipt point was taken to zero flow until further notice, affecting 22,000 MMBtu/d.