Went

Transwestern reported a force majeure event Tuesday afternoon atStation 2 (Flagstaff, AZ) when the #2 compressor unit went down forrepairs. Downtime was estimated at 24-36 hours. West of Thoreaucapacity for today’s gas day is reduced by 70,000 MMBtu/d to about1,065 MMBtu/d.

New Year’s Eve 2000 will not be remembered as the “Night theLights Went Out in Cheyenne, WY.”

The cash market both calmed down and went further down in mostcases in Thursday’s activity. A majority of points ranged from flatto about 30 cents lower. The notable exceptions were declines ofabout 40 cents or more in California and Transco/Texas Easterncitygates in the Northeast, and on the opposite side of the coinwere gains in the Pacific Northwest and on some Rockies pipes.

Aux Sable Liquid Products Inc. said its new natural gas liquids(NGL) extraction and fractionation facilities in Channahon, IL, wentinto operation last Friday in conjunction with the start-up of serviceon the Alliance Pipeline system (see Daily GPI, Dec. 1, 2000).

Transwestern declared force majeure at its Gallup (NM)Compressor Station Tuesday after a unit went down during the nightdue to an electrical problem. San Juan Lateral capacity was reducedto 760,000 MMBtu/d. The pipeline replaced the electrical part andwill have the unit back in service for today’s gas day.

Northwest is lifting today the Stage III Declared EntitlementPeriod for the northern half of its system that went into effect lastFriday (see Daily GPI, Oct. 9). However,the pipeline gave warning of the potential for subsequent entitlement,which allows it to impose a new entitlement after the close of theconfirmation process for the coming gas day. In addition, Northwestsaid effective today it will be necessary to limit the Kemmerer (WY)and possibly the Meacham (OR) and/or Green River (WY) Stations toprimary nominations only in order to make space for Northwest to moveClay Basin storage gas to the Jackson Prairie storage facility. Thepipeline explained the situation this way: “Throughout SeptemberNorthwest experienced continuous customer drafting. To compound theproblem, the price difference between Canadian and Rockies gassupplies has been significant, causing Kemmerer throughput to remainat or above capacity. The price difference threatens to continueindefinitely. If the drafting and unprecedented use of maximumKemmerer capacity persists, depleting Jackson Prairie and making ClayBasin unavailable for use in Northwest’s market areas, customersshould be advised that Northwest must continue to use the toolsavailable to maintain system integrity, including entitlement,alternate gas allocation and operational flow orders.”

Transwestern declared force majeure at the Bloomfield (NM)Compressor Station after the #4 unit went down over the weekend.Repair downtime is uncertain pending the availability of parts, thepipeline said, but it hoped to have the unit back in serviceFriday. The outage reduces normal San Juan Lateral capacity of850,000 MMBtu/d to about 580,000 MMBtu/d today and about 800,000MMBtu/d Thursday.

The cash market was a mix of ups and downs as far as priceaverages went Thursday, but sources agreed that the overall trendwas downward as trading proceeded through the morning. Flat quotesdominated again at many points, while sizeable gains and losseswere scattered.

The cash market went into a general stand-pat mode Wednesday,awaiting developments on the tropical storm, cold weather andstorage fronts. Nearly all points were united in seeing littleprice movement either up or down.