Vicinity

Stingray declared a force majeure after being notified of a potential leak in the vicinity of West Cameron Block 543, and as a precautionary measure has asked operators of the West Cameron 544 and High Island A260 platforms to shut in until further notice. Stingray said late Wednesday afternoon it had closed the valve downstream of its 16-inch diameter lateral until investigation of the potential leak is completed. Stingray earlier had asked all producers on its system to shut in until further notice because it was experiencing an excessive amount of liquids arriving onshore that exceeded its takeaway ability.

With people in Canada and the northern half of the U.S. waking up Tuesday morning to temperatures in the vicinity of freezing or lower, and such conditions expected to continue through Wednesday for the most part, it was hardly surprising to see prices rising again Tuesday at a large majority of locations. However, a significant decline by November futures appears likely to nip this week’s cash rally in the bud.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Wednesday voted out (17-5) the nomination of David Hayes to be deputy secretary of the Department of Interior to the full Senate for confirmation, but Sen. Robert Bennett (R-UT) signaled that he intends to place a “hold” on the nomination. This would prevent the Senate from confirming Hayes until the issues related to disputed Utah oil and natural gas leases are resolved to Bennett’s satisfaction.

A screen spike of 36.6 cents a day earlier and ongoing heavy power generation load from high temperatures in the vicinity of 100 degrees across nearly all of the southern half of the U.S. trumped milder conditions in northern market areas and the usual decline of industrial load over a weekend in causing prices to keep rising at a sizable majority of points Friday.

The Gulf of Mexico production industry in the vicinity of Hurricane Ivan’s path took a significant beating, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) reported on Friday. News of production platform damage, platforms and rigs missing and presumed sunk, and pipelines leaking and on fire sent the gas futures market skyward Friday, a day after many apparently had written off the storm.

Tennessee said Monday it was in the process of isolating the section of pipeline following discovery of a leak in the vicinity of South Pass 38. It estimated that repairs would “take a minimum of two weeks.” The South Pass 38, 39, 45 and 47 meters are affected.

Big rebounds in the vicinity of a dollar at San Juan/Rockies points and moderate declines in the Northeast were the primary diversions Monday from overall flatness in the rest of the cash market, in which most points were less than a nickel up or down from unchanged.

Last week’s market closed out Friday with a reversal of the previous day’s mild rally in fairly quiet activity. A large majority of the weekend price declines were on either side of a dime, but a few ranged up to about 15 cents. Florida citygates recorded a modest gain of about a nickel.