Wyoming

Plant operator Williams Field Services declared force majeure after the Opal Plant in Wyoming experienced an emergency shutdown due to a power outage about 5:25 p.m. MDT Thursday, but the plant outage ended around 1 a.m. Friday, according to a representative of Jonah Gathering System behind Opal. A WFS spokesman later confirmed that the outage didn’t last much more than six hours and operations were resumed immediately after the power was restored. However, WFS made this bulletin board posting Friday: “As a result of this situation field units across the system were knocked offline. Field technicians continue to work diligently to bring gas back onto the system. Nominations were kept whole for gas day 04/07/05; however, Williams will need to make up the interconnect pipeline shortfall by lowering the EFM tolerance going forward until the imbalance has been eliminated. Shippers should expect to see market cuts for the next several days.” Kern River was reporting low linepack Friday in its farthest upstream segment (Muddy Creek to Elberta), which a spokesman confirmed was a result of the Opal shortfall. Kern River encouraged shippers in that segment to resolve any due-pipeline imbalance paybacks.

El Paso Corp. pipeline subsidiary Wyoming Interstate Co. Ltd. (WIC) has filed an application at FERC seeking the go-ahead to carry out an expansion of its system to transport additional natural gas production out of the Rocky Mountain region.

El Paso Corp. pipeline subsidiary Wyoming Interstate Co. Ltd. (WIC) has filed an application at FERC seeking the go-ahead to carry out an expansion of its system to transport additional natural gas production out of the Rocky Mountain region.

Following the Green River and Powder River basins in Wyoming, the Piceance Basin in western Colorado is destined to be the next area of substantial gas production growth in the northern Rockies thanks to EnCana, Williams and other producers, and to plans for additional pipeline infrastructure. However, development never moves quickly in the Rockies; this could take at least two-three years.

Burlington Resources Inc. reported the partial resumption of natural gas production from the Madden Field in Wyoming. Production has resumed from two of the six Madden Deep wells, and the Train II unit at the Lost Cabin Processing Plant has restarted, the company said. The wells are flowing at 65 MMcfe/d, yielding plant natural gas output of 40 MMcfe/d.

Burlington Resources Inc. reported the partial resumption of natural gas production from the Madden Field in Wyoming. Production has resumed from two of the six Madden Deep wells, and the Train II unit at the Lost Cabin Processing Plant has restarted, the company said. The wells are flowing at 65 MMcfe/d, yielding plant natural gas output of 40 MMcfe/d.

El Paso Corp.’s Wyoming Interstate Company (WIC) said there is insufficient demand for it to move forward with its flow reversal and expansion project, which would have brought as much as 550,000 Dth/d of Powder River Basin production to Kanda, WY, and to Kern River Gas Transmission at the Opal Hub from the Cheyenne Hub in northern Colorado.

CIG declared a force majeure Monday evening after experiencing third-party damage to the Big Horn Lateral in northern Wyoming (the bulletin board notice incorrectly identified it as the Wind River Lateral, a spokesman said). The lateral was shut in north of Lost Cabin Station between Block Valves 7 and 8. The outage required that volumes be cut to zero at Elk Basin Station for Tuesday’s gas day. CIG anticipated that line repairs would be completed in time to resume normal operations by Cycle 4 nominations Tuesday (about 8 p.m. MDT).

The Wyoming Interstate Co. system west of Rawlins will be shut down for 16 hours Aug. 14 to upgrade the pipeline to meet new class code requirements. The Overthrust, Questar-WIC, Red Sand, Wapiti and Lost Creek points must be shut in for the duration of the work. A reduced capacity schedule will be coordinated with affected parties for that day, WIC said. Throughout August, the new Medicine Bow Loop will be connected at various locations to the existing Medicine Bow Lateral. No impact to service is anticipated except when Cheyenne Compressor Station is removed from service for one day for construction work, cutting lateral capacity to about 400 MMcf for the day.