Withdrawal

Southern California Gas regained 1 Bcf/d of storage withdrawal capacity Wednesday. It reported completion of maintenance work at the Honor Ranch facility (see Daily GPI, Sept. 19).

FERC Tuesday approved Northern Natural Gas Co.’s proposal to increase the certificated storage capacity of its Redfield Storage Field in Dallas County, IA, by 2.1 Bcf to 124.10 Bcf. The withdrawal rate of the facility will remain the same — 460 MMcf/d. Northern Natural sees this as an interim step for this summer, pending approval of a related request to expand Redfield’s capacity by 8 Bcf.

Despite a warm-up in the northeast and a bearish storage build during withdrawal season, the cash market took its cue instead from Wednesday’s natural gas futures rally, pushing points 8-40 cents higher across the country on Thursday.

TGT issued an OFO that took effect Saturday and directs no-notice and storage customers “to comply with the 68% minimum seasonal storage withdrawal obligations in their service agreements.” The OFO will remain in place until April 1, TGT said. See the bulletin board for further details.

With a 102 Bcf withdrawal from the nation’s gas storage fields last week, according to the latest report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), working gas inventories hit the highest point for this time of year in the last 12 years, and FERC’s Office of Market Oversight and Investigations (OMOI) said Thursday that even record high withdrawals through the rest of the winter could still result in record high inventories on April 1.

Working gas levels ended the withdrawal season during the week ended March 25 at 1,239 Bcf, or about 19% higher than the average seasonal low point over the past 11 years, according to Energy Information Administration data. That will mean more gas to meet summer power demand, but it probably won’t be enough to put much downward pressure on prices, according to two industry experts.

FERC staff has given environmental clearance to Gulf South Pipeline Co. LP to construct three new injection/withdrawal wells and 2.37 miles of associated pipeline at its Jackson Gas Storage facility in Rankin County, MS.

FERC staff has given environmental clearance to Gulf South Pipeline Co. LP to construct three new injection/withdrawal wells and 2.37 miles of associated pipeline at its Jackson Gas Storage facility in Rankin County, MS.

Though somewhat unremarkable in that it featured a 151 Bcf withdrawal that was well within market expectations (see related story), the weekly storage report released Thursday by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) drew attention from industry analysts and data crunchers alike because it was a calendar anomaly — it was the 53rd weekly storage report for 2004.