A 270 MMcf/d reduction in San Juan Basin supply persisted intothe weekend-and possibly beyond-as El Paso reported it had founddamage to internal rotating components in its Blanco Plant’s “D”turbine that would require removal and inspection. The plant hadbeen scheduled to resume full operation Thursday. If the parts canbe repaired and reused, the turbine should return to service May31, El Paso said. But if the parts must be replaced, the projectedreturn date is June 5.

Tennessee declared a Critical Period Friday, saying it lackedavailable capacity to absorb imbalances being caused byoverdeliveries into the system at receipt points and expectedundertakes by receipt point operators over the Memorial Dayweekend. Shippers were asked to match physical flows with scheduledvolumes in order to avoid the necessity of such pipeline actions asan OFO.

Texas Eastern had holiday weekend concerns much likeTennessee’s, issuing a System Warning seeking similar shipperactions. There is limited injection capability at the Oakfordstorage facility due to an expansion project, Texas Eastern said.

Sonat was another Gulf Coast pipe worried about weekendoversupply. Instead of supplies being reduced for Friday’s gas dayas requested earlier, Sonat said, “nominations have increasedsignificantly.” However, conditions must have improved Friday,because the pipeline said early that afternoon it did not expect toissue a systemwide OFO Type 6 for Saturday. However, it remindedshippers that the OFO could be implemented on four hours’ notice orless, “depending on the situation.”

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