Toca

El Paso Corp. subsidiary Southern Natural Gas Co. (SNG) said Tuesday that the force majeure upstream of Toca at the Gate 6 platform offshore Louisiana due to a pipeline rupture remains in effect (see Daily GPI, Aug. 6; Aug. 7), potentially shutting in somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 MMcf/d of offshore production from market. Reduced gas supply for the Southeast could be problematic as the region currently bakes under some of the hottest temperatures of the year.

Tennessee Gas maintained an operational flow order for Wednesday due to nominations in excess of available capacity in Zone 0 and at Niagara. It placed restrictions on deliveries to Station 40 and at its Niagara River Meter. Tennessee also said it will not accept any increases pathed through MLV 528, excluding the header on the Bluewater system and the TTT line 523M-2300 from Eugene Island 365 to Ship Shoal 198. It restricted flow through Station 834. For details see its pipeline bulletin board. Tennessee also confirmed leaks on its 26-inch diameter pipeline at Ship Shoal 157 and Ship Shoal 144. Divers are assessing the damage. Its mainline valve 528 remains shut in due to water at the Port Sulphur Compressor Station (Station 527). It also incurred damage in the South Timbalier area on several lines (524J-100, 524J-600, and 524J-800) and has leaks on the 524C-100 line and the 524C-600 line. Tennessee said it has survey boats inspecting the West Delta, South Pass, and Main Pass areas. It determined that the meters on the Blue Water Header (from Vermillion 245 to Ship Shoal 198) as well as the TTT line 523M-2300 (from Eugene Island 365 to Ship Shoal 198) are available and can begin flowing. The east leg of the Blue Water system remains shut-in. Therefore, gas that would typically be processed at the Yscloskey processing plant will now be flowing on the Blue Water header in a westerly direction and will require processing at the Blue Water Plant. Producers flowing on this portion of the Blue Water system with a hydrocarbon dew point greater than 20 degrees must sign a processing agreement with the Blue Water plant immediately.

Sonat reported being notified by plant operator Enterprise Operating Partners LLC that the Toca II processing plant in southeast Louisiana for 10 days of maintenance beginning Monday. Sonat said it would post new PTR (plant thermal reduction) percentages shortly. The pipeline said it expects a richer gas stream, mainly on its south system, as a result of the outage, but does not anticipate any gas quality problems at this time.

Sonat reported being notified that Enterprise Operating Partners LLC is delaying until further notice an outage of its Toca 1 processing plant in southeast Louisiana. The outage had previously been set to begin April 17 and last two to three weeks (see Daily GPI, April 8). Sonat planned to post a message about new PVR loss percentages on its bulletin board last Friday.