Zone

Flat numbers at Tennessee Zone 6 and the PG&E citygate and about a nickel loss at Dracut were the only exceptions to fairly strong price gains Wednesday everywhere else in the market. Temperatures were staying fairly mild across the southern third of the United States, but with lows in the 30s and 40s forecast for Thursday north of there into Canada, it was obvious that heating demand is starting to play an increasing role in the gas price equation.

Citing forecasts of low temperatures in its market area, Northern Natural Gas said it is expanding a System Overrun Limitation for Zone EF that had been in effect for Tuesday and Wednesday into Zones ABC and D Thursday. The pipeline also declared a force majeure at the Palmyra (NE) Compressor Station, saying it had encountered mechanical issues with Unit 26. The outage, expected to last “several days,” is reducing capacity through Palmyra by 120,000 MMBtu/d, affecting both the Palmyra North and Oakland groups downstream of the Palmyra constraint point, Northern said. However, based on current and forecasted loads, it did not expect allocations of these groups.

Citing forecasts of low temperatures in its market area, Northern Natural Gas said it is expanding a System Overrun Limitation for Zone EF that had been in effect for Tuesday and Wednesday into Zones ABC and D Thursday. The pipeline also declared a force majeure at the Palmyra (NE) Compressor Station, saying it had encountered mechanical issues with Unit 26. The outage, expected to last “several days,” is reducing capacity through Palmyra by 120,000 MMBtu/d, affecting both the Palmyra North and Oakland groups downstream of the Palmyra constraint point, Northern said. However, based on current and forecasted loads, it did not expect allocations of these groups.

Northern Natural Gas declared a System Overrun Limitation for Tuesday in market-area Zone EF due to low temperatures forecasted for that area of its system.

Northern Natural Gas declared a System Overrun Limitation for Tuesday in market-area Zone EF due to low temperatures forecasted for that area of its system.

Tennessee lifted Saturday a Critical Day 1 OFO for its farthest upstream Zone 0, and ended the same OFO for all other zones Sunday.

Prices continued to spike in the Northeast Wednesday, with a few other regional citygates joining Transco Zone 6-New York in jumps of about a dollar or more and Texas Eastern M-3 skyrocketing by more than $2. However, this week’s bullishness showed signs of stalling, with Gulf Coast numbers generally only a few cents both up and down from flat and markets in the Midcontinent/Midwest and West mostly on the moderately softer side.

Northeast spikes, including one of about a dollar by Transco Zone 6-New York, led further price increases at a large majority of points Tuesday as widespread frigid weather continued to stoke major heating load and prompted some analysts to predict that a very large storage withdrawal will be reported for the preceding week. The 16.9-cent rise by January futures a day earlier also helped boost Tuesday’s cash market.

Spectra Energy Corp. is holding a binding open season ending on Aug. 21 for proposed service on its Transportation South (T-South) Zone 4 transmission facilities in southern British Columbia.