CIG had hoped that announcing plans late last week to implement a Strained Operating Condition (SOC) notice Tuesday (see Daily GPI, Nov. 16) would enhance its anticipated limited ability to handle imbalances caused by variations between scheduled receipts/deliveries and actual gas flow, as well as any related excess injections into storage. But, the pipeline said late Monday afternoon, “Since that posting, CIG’s storage injection situation has not improved and inventory levels continue to approach operational limits.” Thus it will change the SOC notice to a full-fledged OFO effective with the start of Wednesday’s gas day until further notice. Under the OFO, “shippers should anticipate that CIG will require all transportation transactions to be in balance between receipts and deliveries, and all shippers should maintain close contact with their suppliers and markets.” Shippers also were asked to ensure that CIG has up-to-date contact names and phone numbers for their accounts. See the bulletin board for further details.

Due to additional work required on the crankshaft, CenterPoint has extended the annual maintenance and overhaul of the #1 compressor unit at Delhi Station that began Nov. 1 to three weeks. The work, which originally had been estimated to last two weeks (see Daily GPI, Oct. 15), limits delivery capacity at Columbia Gulf/Perryville (South) to 250,000-270,000 Dth/d and precludes the scheduling of interruptible services and, to the extent necessary, some firm delivery nominations. The station is now expected to return to full capacity Friday.

Sonat reported that as of the end of the Thursday, Nov. 11 gas day, its estimated working storage inventory was about 57.9 Bcf, or 96% of total system capacity of 60.0 Bcf. At the end of the gas day for Thursday in a comparable week last year (Nov. 13, 2003), estimated working inventory was about 56.9 Bcf, or 95% of capacity.

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