storage

El Paso declared an Unauthorized Overpull Penalty situation Sunday, saying its Washington Ranch storage facility was at maximum withdrawal.

Credit Suisse First Boston analysts are taking a bearish view of gas prices in 2004 but believe gas pipeline companies and local distributors (LDCs) should see higher share valuations because of the current focus of investors on balance sheet repair rather than on high commodity prices.

Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI), which operates more than 35,000 miles of U.S. pipe and 80 storage terminals, expects 2004 earnings to be 12% higher than this year, while its master limited partnership, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (KMP), should see growth of at least 8%, the company said Tuesday.

Gulf South has lifted a force majeure notice for its Magnolia Storage Facility near Napoleonville, LA. The notice took effect last Saturday after the facility’s two compressor units went down. One of the units has been restored to a compression level sufficient to handle all firm third-party obligations, Gulf South said. Efforts to bring that unit to full capacity and to fully commission the remaining idle compressor are continuing.

El Paso declared an Unauthorized Overpull Penalty situation late Monday afternoon, saying its Washington Ranch storage facility was experiencing maximum withdrawals. “To insure system integrity, El Paso will place limits on scheduled volumes at interconnects that are underperforming,” the pipeline added. El Paso also said it has not determined how long the Alamo Lake Station’s #2 turbine will be down for unscheduled repairs. The outage reduced capacity of the Havasu Crossover 145 MMcf/d effective with nominations for Cycle 4 Monday and Cycle 2 Tuesday until further notice.

Saying its Washington Ranch storage facility was experiencing maximum withdrawals, El Paso declared an Unauthorized Overpull Penalty situation Sunday. The situation was still in place Monday until further notice, the pipeline said. To insure system integrity, it will limit scheduled volumes at interconnects that are underperforming.

Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) is proposing to expand the capacity of its Oil Springs natural gas storage facility in eastern Carbon County, WY to 10 Bcf/year, which would allow cycling capability to third-party shippers, the company said Friday.

The Washington Ranch Storage facility will be down for annual Department of Transportation inspections and other maintenance Aug. 4-8, El Paso said. There will be no injections or withdrawals during the outage, which El Paso said will deprive it of a large degree of operational flexibility. This makes it critical that all shippers manage their volumes carefully to balance receipts and deliveries daily, the pipeline said. It added that Line 7100 from Washington Ranch to the South Mainline will be pigged Aug. 19-20, requiring withdrawals from Washington Ranch.

Nine consecutive weeks of sizable, if not record, builds to natural gas storage inventories appear to be lessening some of the concerns about supply levels for next winter, but major industrial gas customers aren’t feeling any easier.