Columbia Gulf notified operators Monday at nine Eugene Island platforms where it and/or Tennessee has meters (see Daily GPI, Sept. 19) that they must shut in and take nominations to zero immediately in order to allow Columbia Gulf to make repairs to a leak on its 20-inch line in the Eugene Island 264 area. “Operators should not begin flowing gas until further notice,” Columbia Gulf said.

Saying it was experiencing high linepack and that the Washington Ranch storage facility was not available due to scheduled maintenance, El Paso declared a Strained Operating Condition (SOC) Saturday for the IGILARVR interconnect. The SOC, which had a 4% threshold for positive imbalances, was lifted Monday. “The return of a portion of injection capacity at Washington Ranch, combined with demand that more nearly matched nominated levels of supply, have restored south system linepack to a level at which system integrity is not currently threatened,” El Paso said.

Southern Natural Gas said Monday it has begun mobilizing equipment at the Toca (LA) Compressor Station in preparation for cleanup (including installation of temporary housing for employees) and conducting detailed assessments. Inspections to date have indicated that the station sustained damage due to flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina, the pipeline said. It expected an analysis of “major structural damage” at the Main Pass 298 junction platform to be available Tuesday. “We expect that the [repair] plans will require us to depressurize both the 26-inch line from Olga Compressor Station to Main Pass 298 and the 24-inch line from Main Pass 298 to Main Pass 289,” Southern said. Assessments of subsea pipelines are continuing. Southern said it completed the investigation of the 18-inch Main Pass 306 pipeline “and can now report that it appears to have suffered significant damage, including heavy coating damage and up to approximately 70 feet of displacement along the first 2,000 feet of its length beginning at the fallen producer platform.” It also has confirmed damage to the 8-inch Bayou Felice Line. Based on its initial analysis of information gathered over the past couple of weeks, Southern expects that some flows through Toca will be able resume by mid-October. “The timing of initial flows will depend largely on the completion of temporary repairs to our liquids handling facilities at Toca Compressor Station and, possibly, the availability of dehydration facilities,” the pipeline said. “The amount of initial flows and any subsequent increases in flows will depend on a number of factors, including other repairs to our facilities and repairs to Enterprise Operating Partners’ processing plant at Toca. In particular, resumption of any flows from receipt points east of the Main Pass 298 junction platform and from the Main Pass 298 platform to Olga Compressor Station will be impacted by execution of plans to address the platform damage.”

Tennessee reported establishment of a temporary interconnect with Discovery Pipeline that became available for nominations Saturday. Tennessee shippers were encouraged to contact Discovery’s Asa Roberts at (713) 215-3078 or Nadine Galinsky at -3237 to arrange processing and discuss downstream transportation options.

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