Unexpectedly

From all of the large double-digit gains throughout the cash market Tuesday, it would seem like: (a) a major hurricane had sprung up unexpectedly in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico production area, or (b) huge blizzards had begun raging throughout North America.

Not unexpectedly, prices fell by large amounts across the board Friday. The negative influences were almost overwhelming: forecasts of moderate late-spring weather continuing in most areas; the extra loss of load associated with a holiday weekend; and the previous day’s plunge of 36.7 cents by June futures.

The Hess Corp.-operated Sea Robin Processing Plant resumed processing operations Monday night after being shut down unexpectedly Friday (see Daily GPI, Aug. 21), Sea Robin Pipeline reported. The pipeline asked shippers to adjust flows and nominations as needed.

The Hess Corp.-operated Sea Robin Processing Plant was shut down unexpectedly Friday, Sea Robin Pipeline reported. The plant will continue to dehydrate gas during this outage, it added. The pipeline said that if any downstream pipeline operator declines to accept Sea Robin deliveries while the plant is down, it will notify shippers as soon as possible of the need to move their gas to other delivery points. It urged shippers to contact downstream point operators to see if they will be accepting gas from Sea Robin.

Sea Robin Pipeline reported that the Sea Robin Processing Plant, which has seen off-and-on operations in the last month or two, was shut down again unexpectedly Wednesday but will continue to dehydrate gas during the unplanned outage. Sea Robin Pipeline said if it is notified by any downstream pipeline operator that Sea Robin gas can no longer be accepted due to the lack of processing, it will provide as much notice as possible to shippers of the need to use other delivery points. “Shippers are encouraged to call their downstream delivery point operators to see if they will be accepting gas from Sea Robin during this outage.

Timothy H. Ling, 46, the president and chief operating officer of Unocal Corp., died suddenly on Wednesday, the company said. He had been a member of Unocal’s board of directors since 2000 and also was a member of the company’s management committee.

An unexpectedly small gas storage injection of 53 Bcf reported last week by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) for the week ending Aug. 22 initially sent gas futures prices climbing higher last Thursday, but the market then reversed course partly on speculation that the agency might have to revise its storage numbers upward.

El Paso Corp., owner of the largest U.S. natural gas pipeline system, last Wednesday reported an unexpectedly large net loss for the second quarter as a result of a series of write-offs tied to discontinued operations, asset impairments and the western energy settlement that it says were aimed at turning around the financially strapped company.

El Paso Corp., owner of the largest U.S. natural gas pipeline system, on Wednesday reported an unexpectedly large net loss for the second quarter as a result of a series of write-offs tied to discontinued operations, asset impairments and the western energy settlement that it says are intended to turn the financially strapped company around.