Texas Eastern said it has or will be evacuating facilities in its South Texas and West Louisiana zones, meaning multiple compressor stations in the zones will be shut down and capacity will be reduced. Tetco is restricting receipts at certain locations in order to protect the integrity of its system and is force balancing receipt points and TABS pools to reflect actual flows. Due to limited manpower, the pipeline will be suspending the hourly batch nomination validations and reverting back to the four NAESB timelines for purposes of nomination, scheduling and confirming. The pipeline said it has capacity available in zones downstream of South Texas and East Texas for shippers to source alternative supplies. However, zones M1 and M2 have been restricted to capacity through the Sarahsville compressor station. Nomination increases for receipts between Vidor and Sarahsville for delivery outside that area will not be accepted.

Columbia Gulf Transmission said Thursday that it was experiencing a significant loss of supply as a result of Hurricane Rita. All sellers of gas including pool operators are instructed to make corresponding reductions in their deliveries to match their loss of supply and should rank nominations in order of importance.

El Paso said the business systems for its El Paso Natural Gas, Colorado Interstate Gas, Mojave, Wyoming Interstate Company and Cheyenne Plains pipeline systems are supported through a data center in Houston, which may have to be evacuated. However it was not expecting to have to switch to a backup location. The company said a number of liquids handling facilities along the Gulf Coast have been or are likely to be shut down, which is likely to impact supply availability. Processing plants in the West frequently send their liquid products to the Gulf Coast. As a result, some western gas supply has been shut in for lack of processing. If this trend continues, El Paso said it would work with processing plant operators to maximize flow but its ability to absorb the problem is “very limited.” El Paso’s pipelines were accepting nominations for the entire weekend on Thursday.

Southern Natural said the force majeure for receipt points upstream of Toca in Louisiana continues until personnel can verify the integrity of its facilities following damage from Hurricane Katrina. The affected receipt points were flowing about 550,000 Mcf/d into Southern prior to Hurricane Katrina, Southern said. “Our efforts to assess and repair damage from Hurricane Katrina have been impacted by Hurricane Rita… Assessments of our offshore facilities have been suspended. At our Toca compressor station, installation of temporary living quarters, which is essential to commencing implementation of repairs at that location, has been delayed until after the passage of the storm because parties have been evacuated from St. Bernard Parish. In addition, we expect that some reassessments of our facilities will be required as a result of Hurricane Rita.” Southern said that it completed the depressurization of all lines entering and leaving its Main Pass 298 junction platform, which suffered major structural damage during Katrina. “We are continuing to work on plans that will address the damage on a temporary and permanent basis.

Tennessee said it will be operating from alternate locations in San Antonio and Hockley, TX. However, local traffic congestion impacted travel efforts to Hockley. Due to nominations in excess of the available capacity Tennessee anticipates restrictions at the following locations: Niagara River Meter; Grand Chenier 507-K, F and A lines; Johnson Bayou; MLV 528; and MLV 509A Bluewater West Leg. Tennessee also will not accept any supply to market increases pathed through Station 524.

NGPL said it has seen a significant loss of supply across the system. Compressor stations 342 and 343 also have been shut-in in response to mandatory personnel evacuations. Compressor Station 302 is still operational, but may be impacted in the near future, the company said early Thursday. Additionally, Compressor Station 346 in Vermilion Parish, LA, is currently operational; however it may be impacted by future evacuation orders. The locations of the other stations are: Station 302 in Montgomery County, TX, Station 343 in Liberty County, TX, and Station 342 in Cameron Parish, LA. The unavailability of the compressors is a force majeure event. NGPL said Segment 25 has a reduction of available capacity.

Trunkline LNG said it is shut down, and ship unloading and sendout will not be available until further notice.

Sea Robin personnel at the Erath compressor station were ordered to evacuate and the offshore system may have to be shut in.

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