Sonat implemented an OFO Type 6 effective Saturday until further notice. Tiered penalties ranged from $1 to $15 per dekatherm for shippers running positive daily imbalances in excess of a tolerance of 2% or 200 dekatherms, whichever was greater.

Operations were back to normal Friday at the Opal Plant and normal processing of about 1 Bcf/d was anticipated for the gas day, said a spokesman for plant operator Williams Field Services. Kern River had said that morning that WFS was “currently shorting us at the Opal receipt point” as a result of a rupture on the Mid-America Pipeline for natural gas liquids operated by Enterprise Products Partners. According to a notice on the WFS GasKit bulletin board to all shippers behind the Opal and Echo Springs Plants, Kinder Morgan was excavating for a carbon dioxide line Thursday night when a backhoe exposed all three Enterprise liquid product lines a mile north of the Edgewood, NM pumping station when it dug into the 10-inch line. “As a result, Enterprise requested Echo Springs to immediately shut down liquid production.” WFS said it put all three Echo Springs plants into ethane rejection shortly after 7 p.m. MDT Thursday and that Enterprise “also requested our Opal plant to shut in liquid production.” The WFS spokesman said the actions Thursday night were believed to have affected 100 MMcf/d, but no curtailments were in effect Friday.

Questar cited lower seasonal temperatures that are cooling the ground in saying that effective Oct. 1, it will begin enforcing a maximum hydrocarbon dew point for receipt points on its Northern System. Points west of Nightingale Station will be limited to 45 degrees F at line operating conditions due to limited liquid handling facilities in that section, the pipeline said. Based on historical liquid handling requirements and available facilities, points east of Nightingale Station will be limited to 50 degrees F at line operating conditions. Depending on ground temperatures and operational parameters, Questar said it may need to further reduce the acceptable hydrocarbon dew point “during the core winter months.”

Eunice Station’s B turbine will be down for mechanical inspection Oct. 8-9, reducing capacity from Eunice to Keystone by 120 MMcf/d, El Paso said.

©Copyright 2003 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.