Southwest

CenterPoint canceled Monday a systemwide alert under which it began charging Excess Contract Quantities penalties last Thursday.

ANR said Friday morning it had completed unplanned maintenance at Havensville Compressor Station and was lifting the associated Southwest Mainline capacity reduction (see Daily GPI, Dec. 28) effective with the next intraday nominations cycle.

Due to a required but unplanned pipeline inspection, ANR restricted its segment between the E.G. Hill and Custer Compressor Stations in the Southwest Gathering Area to 200 MMcf/d Wednesday. “At this time, it is anticipated this restriction will be in place through the weekend or until more information becomes available,” ANR said. Based on recent nominations, it expected that the reduction would result in the curtailment of nominations associated with IT and Firm Catalog Receipt Points in the affected area.

Florida Gas Transmission ended Friday an Overage Alert Day that had been in effect since last Monday.

Citing the scarcity of natural gas storage in the Southwest, FERC on Friday gave El Paso Natural Gas a waiver of the Natural Gas Act (NGA) certificate requirements to carry out drilling and testing activities to determine the feasibility of developing new storage facilities in south-central Arizona.

Fort Worth-based Range Resources Corp., which concentrates on exploration in the Southwest, Appalachia and the Gulf Coast region of the United States, reported Wednesday 4Q2005 production volumes rose to 250.3 MMcfe/d, a 16.5% increase over the same period a year ago. About 72% of the company’s output in the quarter was natural gas.

Texas Eastern said an inspection of its Cameron system offshore southwest Louisiana has determined that production from 37 meters (see bulletin board for list) can begin flows at 9 a.m. CDT Wednesday. The pipeline will accept nominations for supply sourced from the posted meters once the meter operator has contacted its Texas Eastern operations account manager to report the status of production. Meters on the Cameron system that are not listed should remain shut in as further investigations continue, Texas Eastern said.

The U.S. offices of Australia-based Macquarie Bank have formed a joint marketing alliance to provide risk management services to Sierra Southwest Cooperative Services Inc.’s natural gas customers in Arizona, California and Nevada.

Indicative of its current push to acquire new assets and expand its reach in the Southwest, PNM Resources, the holding company for Public Service Company of New Mexico, on Thursday increased it financing capacity to $1 billion with a so-called “shelf registration” statement to the federal Securities and Exchange Commission. The latest registration was for an added $500 million.