Valves

The Department of Transportation's (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) announced a proposed rulemaking to expand the use of excess flow valves for natural gas distribution lines.

While no hearings have been set as of yet for deciding the fate of several natural gas safety bills alive in the California legislature, all indicators point to the picture becoming clearer following mid-August committee hearings, when state lawmakers return from a month-long recess that begins Friday.

Tennessee declared a force majeure event for the section of pipe between Main Line Valves 400-1 and 402-1 in the Agua Dulce, TX, area due to possible damage from a third-party accident. Based on current nominations, Tennessee anticipated the possibility of restricting through a pro rata portion of Previous Scheduled (PS Priority) nominations for Monday’s Intraday Cycle and a pro rata portion of Secondary Out of Path nominations for Tuesday.

CNX Gas Corp.’s first horizontal well in the Marcellus Shale is producing at a rate of 6.5 MMcf/d, which sets a company record for daily output. The production rate is among the highest reported to date by any producer operating in the Appalachian Basin play. The CNX well, located in Green County, PA, began flowing on Oct. 2 at an initial rate of 1.2 MMcf/d and 4,000 pounds/square inch (psi) of backpressure. The backpressure gradually was reduced, which allowed daily production to increase to about 4 MMcf/d until early in December, when newly installed surface equipment enabled the well to flow at the record rate. The backpressure was being held at 2,640 psi. Cumulative production from the well prior to the record rate achieved was 106 MMcf. The Marcellus well was drilled to a vertical depth of 8,140 feet in the Huntersville Chert, penetrating 83 vertical feet of shale. CNX holds a 100% working stake in the well and also has 100% net revenue interest. The Pittsburgh-based independent is drilling its second vertical Marcellus Shale well, which would be hydraulically fractured using second and third horizontal wells.

“Mischief” at several well sites in a rural area near Fort St. John, BC — including valves being tampered with and shots fired at structures — does not appear to be related to a series of minor explosions along an EnCana Corp. natural gas pipeline near Dawson Creek, BC, earlier this year, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) investigators said on Thursday.

ANR said late Friday it had returned the 22-inch diameter line between Main Line Valves 82 and 83 in Cass County, MI to service. The 24-inch diameter line in the same segment remains isolated until further notice while ANR continues inspection and repairs on it due to a force majeure event arising from third-party damage (see Daily GPI, Dec. 21). Restoring service on the 22-inch line allowed ANR to raise the capacity of Bridgman East CFTP to 1,091 MMcf/d; with both lines out the capacity had been limited to 650 MMcf/d. However, based on current nominations, the pipeline still anticipates that the larger capacity may result in curtailment of nominations associated with Firm Secondary and IT services through Bridgman East CFTP.

Pacific Gas & Electric did not extend a Stage 3 high-inventory OFO beyond Saturday.

In order to repair a mainline fitting at the Stanfield (OR) CityTap, PG&E Gas Transmission-Northwest (GTN) will isolate itsA-Line between Main Line Valves 8-2.5 and 8-3.0 for about 16 hoursThursday. Capacity at points downstream of MLV 8-3.0 will bereduced about 70 MMcf/d to 2,000 MMcf/d. Based on current flowconditions, GTN estimated Station 14 immediately upstream fromMalin will experience a capacity cut from 1,940 MMcf/d to 1,875MMcf/d. Every effort will be made to return the system to fullcapacity by Friday’s gas day, GTN said.

Florida Gas Transmission discovered a leak on its 22-inchmainline downstream of Station 4 (Matagorda County, TX) betweenvalves 4-7 and 4-5 (west of Galveston Bay). That section was beingisolated and its pressure reduced. As of Tuesday afternoon,estimated downtime was 24-36 hours. FGT was keeping shippers wholeTuesday and trying to re-route as much affected gas as possible, aspokeswoman said, but for today’s gas day there will be no flow at15 receipt points and two delivery points.