Throughput

New pipeline and compressor infrastructure has helped boost dry gas production in West Virginia and neighboring southern Pennsylvania counties since early 2012, with more growth still expected to come in the region despite strategic shifts by oil and gas companies to more liquids-rich targets, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Tuesday.

Surging winter cold and constrained pipeline throughput throughout the Northeast teamed up this week to send northeastern natural gas cash prices into the stratosphere, and if projections from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) hold up, there may be no relief until the middle of next week.

As it goes with producers, so it goes with the midstream: liquids-rich gas is the most desirable to have and to handle, and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP’s Boardwalk Field Services LLC is expanding its systems accordingly.

Nicor Gas is seeking a decoupling mechanism to preserve revenue in the face of declining throughput as part of a rate hike request at the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC). Meanwhile, two other Illinois gas utilities said their decoupling mechanisms just yielded a million-dollar payback to customers.

Faced with rising distribution costs and declining throughput on its gas distribution system in Arkansas, CenterPoint Energy Inc. has proposed two alternative mechanisms to state regulators that would allow it to recover more of its fixed costs through fixed charges to customers, partially decoupling revenue from volumetric charges.

Citing “very cold weather projections in the Pacific Northwest over the next few days and record low throughput volumes across the Canadian border,” Northwest declared a Stage II (8%) Overrun Entitlement for Receiving Parties on the Wenatchee Lateral and a Stage III Overrun Entitlement (13%) for all other Receiving Parties located north of the Kemmerer (WY) Compressor Station for the gas days of Wednesday and Thursday. Northwest said its tariff provides that an Overrun Entitlement will subject a receiving party to penalties if the party’s takes of gas exceed its confirmed nominations by more than the allowed threshold percentage. Northwest said it “encourages customers to secure adequate supplies from Canadian supply sources during this cold period.”

Westcoast reported experiencing “some souring issues” at the McMahon Gas Plant. The plant was at zero throughput as of early Friday afternoon but was in the process of ramping operations back up, the pipeline said. Customers were not asked to adjust their McMahon business, but “upstream customers will experience higher pressures as we recover from this event,” it added.

Despite adverse weather conditions during the fourth quarter and full year and lower throughput on its gas pipelines, NiSource beat analysts’ earnings estimates and posted higher net income. Income from continuing operations for 2004 was $1.63/share compared to analysts’ estimates of $1.60/share, while quarterly income from continuing operations was 2 cents more than estimates at 59 cents/share.

Despite adverse weather conditions during the fourth quarter and full year and lower throughput on its gas pipelines, NiSource beat analysts’ earnings estimates and posted higher net income. Income from continuing operations for 2004 was $1.63/share compared to analysts’ estimates of $1.60/share, while quarterly income from continuing operations was 2 cents more than estimates at 59 cents/share.