Valve

ExxonMobil Corp. subsidiary XTO Energy Inc. will pay a $100,000 penalty and spend an estimated $20 million on a plan to improve wastewater management practices following a settlement with federal authorities to resolve an alleged violation of the Clean Water Act related to the discharge of hydraulic fracturing wastewater at a Lycoming County, PA, facility.

In anticipation of valve section 313-1 to 314-1 being placed back in service Friday afternoon, Tennessee said it was lifting the OFO Action Alert in downstream market Zones 5 and 6 that morning. Due to the Bear Creek storage field test and linepack conditions, the Action Alert OFO will remain in effect in zones 0, L, 1, 2, 3 and 4 for all Balancing Parties until further notice, Tennessee said.

Tennessee said Wednesday afternoon it had identified a leak on the Fidelity Line 8A-300 lateral located at Main Line Valve 8 near Victoria, TX. Two meters were required to shut in until further notice, the pipeline said. It added that shipper nominations there were allowed to remain in place for Wednesday’s gas day but must be reduced to zero effecitve with Evening Cycle nominations for Thursday.

Tennessee reported identifying a leak on the North Odem 3A-100 lateral between Main Line Valve 3 and Station 9 near Odem, TX. The Morgan meter was required to shut in. Tennessee allowed shipper nominations there to remain in place for Friday’s gas day, but said nominations were being taken to zero in the Timely cycle for Saturday until further notice.

Tennessee said it will have to shut in the 526A-100 Line as soon as possible in order to replace a valve on the Scofield platform near Port Sulphur, LA. Equipment and personnel are anticipated to arrive at the site Wednesday, and Tennessee is estimating that it will take five days for repair completion. Physical flow will be suspended at 32 meters from Wednesday through Aug. 1, Tennessee said. Travel time for work boats and crew mobilizations prompted the pipeline to add a few extra shut-in days for contingency purposes, a spokesman said.

Transwestern said Monday it was reducing capacity at the LaPlata Compressor Station to 475,000 MMBtu/d through Tuesday due to a fuel valve malfunction as well as the station operating at less than 100% of capacity and high ambient temperatures. “The high temperatures cause the [compressor] units to slow down during the daylight hours,” Transwestern said. Affected interconnects are Northwest/Ignacio, Williams/Ignacio and BP Florida. Capacity will be restored to the normal 500,000 MMBtu/d Wednesday.

Belen Station became unavailable Wednesday morning due to surge control valve problems, El Paso said, adding that parts are being shipped in and if all goes well, the station will be returned to service Friday afternoon. Meanwhile, Belen’s outage has changed a capacity reduction of the San Juan Crossover from 29 MMcf/d to 75 MMcf/d through Friday.

FERC has granted a request of Puget Sound Energy Inc., operator of the Jackson Prairie Storage project, to build facilities to recycle natural gas to an authorized storage zone (Zone 2) at its Washington state storage facility from another zone in the formation to which gas has migrated.

Tennessee reported identifying a leak on the 500-1 line at valve 526-1A, and effective Sunday morning had required two Lake Washington Dehydration meters (#010555 and #101596) to shut in until further notice. Shippers accessing those meters were allowed to keep nominations in place for Monday’s gas day, but were required to reduce their nominations to zero for Tuesday’s Timely Cycle nominations. The pipeline declared a force majeure in conjunction with the event.