Wyoming

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal fired off a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar last week slamming the department’s ambitious reform of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) oil and natural gas leasing program. Salazar pointed to the reforms as evidence that producers’ influence over BLM policies was waning.

Williams Field Services (WFS) reported postponing emergency maintenance on the Turbo Expander Plant (TXP) 3 unit at its Opal Plant in Wyoming that had been scheduled for Thursday and Friday (a previous posting had said the maintenance would be on TXP 5). A new date for the work, which was expected to reduce plant processing capacity by an estimated 250 MMcf/d, will be communicated when it becomes available, WFS said.

Williams Field Services (WFS) said it will continue emergency maintenance on the Turbo Expander Plant 5 unit at its Opal Plant in Wyoming with installation of the repaired reboiler unit beginning Thursday. The work, which is expected to be completed Friday, will reduce plant processing capacity by an estimated 250 MMcf/d. “Barring any unforeseen delays, nominations can return to pre-maintenance levels” beginning with Saturday’s gas day, WFS said.

FERC has approved Wyoming Interstate Co. Ltd.’s (WIC) request to begin service on Phase II compression expansion facilities of its Piceance Lateral in northwestern Colorado.

FERC has issued favorable environmental reviews for Northwest Pipeline’s Sundance Trail Expansion Project in Colorado and Wyoming, and Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s (Transco) project in New Jersey.

It’s been well established for a long time that prices in the Rockies, which slumped to record lows of 1 cent/Mcf in a few instances in 2007, have been the low market on the North American natural gas price totem pole. But the initiation of service in May 2008 on the western section of Rockies Express (REX-West), with its major addition of takeaway capacity for Rockies supplies through Audrain County, MO, eventually proved to be a major boon for Rockies numbers, and the addition of REX-East transport to the Lebanon Hub in Ohio near the end of June this year has further served to compress basis to other regions.

Columbia Gas extended a “Critical Day” restriction on interruptible storage injections (see Daily GPI, Aug. 27) through the end of the month.

It’s been well established for a long time that prices in the Rockies, which slumped to record lows of 1 cent/Mcf in a few instances in 2007, have been the low market on the North American natural gas price totem pole. But the initiation of service in May 2008 on the western section of Rockies Express (REX-West), with its major addition of takeaway capacity for Rockies supplies through Audrain County, MO, eventually proved to be a major boon for Rockies numbers, and the addition of REX-East transport to the Lebanon Hub in Ohio near the end of June this year has further served to compress basis to other regions.

While drilling has slowed in the Uintah Basin in Utah, Wyoming Interstate Co. Ltd.’s (WIC) pipeline says there still is a need for takeaway capacity from the region and has filed an application at FERC for a compression expansion on its Kanda Lateral.