Usually Northern Natural Gas extends a System Overrun Limitation notice only on a day-by-day basis, but as of Friday it said the SOL for all market-area zones that had begun nearly two weeks earlier would remain in effect through at least Monday (March 3).

El Paso lifted Friday an Unauthorized Overpull Penalty notice that had been implemented Tuesday.

Citing “an extended period of unseasonable cold weather” and heavy storage utilization, Texas Eastern issued a new OFO Friday to protect its storage delivery capability. Shippers are barred from creating due-pipeline imbalances on any day in excess of 2% of scheduled quantities until further notice. This OFO is separate from one posted earlier in the week that was to take effect Saturday (see Daily GPI, Feb. 26), a spokesman said.

CenterPoint canceled an Operational Alert, issued Feb. 22, at the start of Thursday’s gas day. Affiliated pipeline MRT lifted Thursday the System Protection Warning that had gone into effect Feb. 23.

Transco reported being notified by unspecified processing plant operators on its system that due to the rise in natural gas prices, they planned to cease processing effective March 1. See the bulletin board for a list of receipt points upstream of the plants where tendered gas does not meet the pipeline’s merchantability requirements and may require alternative arrangements. More specifically, Transco alerted customers that the North Terrebonne Gas Processing Plant in South Louisiana would reduce processing levels to 87% as of March 1. “Shippers are advised that nominations for plant thermal reduction (PTR) quantities should reflect the reduction of recovery.” In another notice, Transco said poor gas processing economics in late February have reduced levels of processing across its system, and as a result, it anticipates an increase in systemwide Btu heating values “for a short period of time.” However, it expects the processing facilities to “return to normal operations by early March” and does not anticipate a significant impact on its operations from the short-term Btu increase.

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