Due to continuing declines in linepack from “receipt underperformance” despite its declaration of a Strained Operating Condition Wednesday, El Paso upgraded the OFO to a systemwide Critical Operating Condition (COC) Thursday. “Performance caps are being placed on all receipt locations that are supplying volumes at less than scheduled rates,” the pipeline said. Receipt shortfalls from San Juan Basin are in excess of 350 MMcf/d, while those in the Permian Basin exceed 300 MMcf/d, it added. “Shippers should immediately evaluate performance of their suppliers and insure that they are sourcing their supplies from locations that are capable of performing…Shippers taking gas above their scheduled quantities should immediately acquire additional supply or reduce their rate of take. There is transmission system capacity available at Waha and at interconnects downstream of Keystone if shippers determine that they need additional or different sources of supply to protect their markets.” El Paso continued to encourage payback of due-pipeline imbalances.

Transwestern also said it was experiencing low linepack levels Thursday. It asked point operators to closely adhere to scheduled volumes and said it will take further operational measures as necessary to ensure operational integrity, including rescheduling quantities if nominated supplies are not being received.

Due to further steady declines in its Jackson Prairie storage account balance, Northwest said Thursday it is changing the current Unauthorized Overrun Entitlement (see Daily GPI, Dec. 8) from Stage II (8% imbalance tolerance) to Stage I (3% tolerance) starting with Friday’s gas day. The entitlement is in effect for all Receiving Party customers north of the Kemmerer (WY) Compressor Station. “To avoid penalties and a potential OFO through the Green River and Kemmerer Compressor Stations, Northwest requests your immediate cooperation and assistance to stay within your scheduled volumes by bringing on additional supplies north of Kemmerer, the pipeline said. “Northwest is also requesting customers who owe gas to Northwest north of Kemmerer to make arrangements to pay back their imbalances as soon as possible. In addition, if the primary nominations, beginning gas day Friday…exceed the design capacity of 333,000 Dth and 653,000 Dth at the Green River and Kemmerer Compressor Stations, respectively, Northwest will immediately invoke the OFO provisions” as outlined in its tariff. See the bulletin board for further details.

Northwest also reported experienced a line failure early Thursday morning on a 20-inch lateral about 22 miles south of Green River, WY. Company personnel were on-site and monitoring the situation closely with local emergency responders Thursday, the pipeline said, adding that the cause of the failure was unknown but no injuries were reported. The location is about 200 feet from the meter station that connects Northwest with CIG. As a result, Northwest issued a notice of a Declared Deficiency Period effective with Thursday’s gas day. During the deficiency period, Northwest will cut all nomination requests to CIG at the Green River delivery point until further notice. “Since there is no flow at the Green River delivery point, the deficiency volume based on the Green River design capacity will be 271,400 Dth/d,” Northwest said.

Pacific Gas & Electric issued a customer-specific OFO for Friday.

Northern Natural Gas is ending Friday a System Overrun Limitation notice that had been in effect for all market-area zones from Sunday through Thursday.

Questar increased withdrawal capacity from the Clay Basin storage facility to its system and into Northwest to 675,000 Dth/d Thursday.

Gulf South will declare force majeure during four days of scheduled maintenance starting next Tuesday on its Index 59 segment in East Texas from Mile Post 27 to Mile Post 87.7. The work will affect Gulf South’s ability to provide service to seven Farm Tap delivery locations and from 52 receipt points.

©Copyright 2005Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.