As it had warned might be necessary (see Daily GPI, Feb. 26), Transco said a systemwide Imbalance OFO will take effect with the start of Thursday’s gas day. Limits on imbalance delivery make-up nominations and pooling point tolerances remain in effect until further notice. The OFO limits negative daily imbalances to 5%. Positive imbalances are not subject to OFO provisions.

Great Lakes Gas Transmission posted a critical notice anticipating that it will be required to invoke a force majeure starting with nominations for Friday flow. Thus Great Lakes may not be able to confirm all firm nominations to Northern Natural Gas at the GRLKS/NNG Carlton receipt point for that gas day, NNG said. NNG has called a 100% Carlton Resolution for Friday; in order to mitigate any penalty charges, Carlton Sourcer s must nominate their full Carlton Resolution volumes. “Even though these nominations may not be confirmed, all Carlton sourcers should submit the proper nomination,” the pipeline said. “If the volumes are nominated but not confirmed due to the force majeure on Great Lakes, the shipper will not be penalized. However, if the nomination is not submitted, the normal penalty provisions shall apply.”

Dominion reported Wednesday being notified by Steuben Storage that the facility’s capability to deliver is limited to approximately 21,000 Dth/d. Since nominations at Dominion’s interconnect continue to exceed Steuben’s ability to physically deliver the gas, nominations for Thursday’s gas day were reduced per Steuben’s direction until further notice. The pipeline also reminded shippers that an OFO implemented last Sunday (see Daily GPI, Feb. 24) remains in effect until further notice.

El Paso declared an Unauthorized Overpull Penalty situation due to low linepack and forecasts of continued cold weather in its operating area. Maximum withdrawals are occurring at the Washington Ranch storage facility, El Paso said. To insure system integrity, it will limit scheduled volumes at underperforming interconnects.

CenterPoint (formerly Reliant) is under Operational Alert due to continued below normal weather conditions in its service area and low storage deliverability. CenterPoint is not scheduling interruptible and secondary deliveries, and is limiting service to primary firm obligations east of Chandler (OK) Compressor Station. The pipeline said customers, “particularly power plants or other large loads whose swings can cause operational difficulties,” must take deliveries as close to ratably as possible throughout the day, “in no event exceeding their hourly entitlements by more than 10% in any hour.” Absent mitigating action by shippers, an OFO may be imminent, CenterPoint said.

CIG said shipper compliance with a Strained Operating Condition declared Monday (see Daily GPI, Feb. 25) was effective in improving the pipeline’s operational situation, so based on higher market requirements and the increased system flexibility that had become available, the SOC was lifted Wednesday.

Public Service Co. of Colorado extended an OFO issued Monday (see Daily GPI, Feb. 25) through Tuesday, then lifted it Wednesday.

The combination of higher cold-weather demand in its market area and a low inventory in its Jackson, MS storage facility require Gulf South to continue to schedule only firm primary nominations northbound through the Montpelier (LA) Compressor Station. It also began Wednesday to schedule only firm primary service eastbound through Bayou Sale to Napoleonville, LA. “These scheduling criteria will be used for the remainder of February and for March activity,” the pipeline said.

Northwest cited cold weather, low linepack, drafting of its system and heavy withdrawals out of storage in informing customers of a potential Declared Entitlement Period. “An Unauthorized Overrun Entitlement may be declared to be effective for gas day 2/27/03 forward if current conditions persist,” Northwest said, adding that the “Stage” of the Declared Entitlement Period will be determined at the time if one it becomes necessary. Also, the pipeline began Wednesday to identify receiving parties “whose usage from the previous gas day exceeds nominations by at least 10% and will place those [parties] under a customer-specific entitlement period if a general ‘all-system’ Declared Entitlement Period is not already in place.” If persistent northbound overscheduling through the Kemmerer (WY) Compressor Station bottleneck is not alleviated and linepack and storage continue to be depleted, “we will have no choice but to issue an OFO in order to maintain system integrity,” Northwest said. It added, “As the Jackson Prairie storage inventory decreases, the daily withdrawal capability decreases as well.” For the short term, Northwest will post its daily withdrawal capacity out of Jackson Prairie on the Daily Operational Report every morning and will only schedule withdrawals up to the reported capacity.

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