CenterPoint declared a Critical Period Thursday, saying its system is fully subscribed and operating at or near full utilization, and thus it “is requiring customers systemwide, particularly those whose swings can cause operational difficulties…to take deliveries as close to ratably as possible throughout the day during the period that this alert is in effect.” CenterPoint said it will not allow shipper’ takes to exceed hourly ratable entitlements (based on nominated and scheduled quantities) by more than 5% in any hour at the Perryville Hub, 20% in any hour for the North Louisiana and East Texas Core and Secondary systems, and 50% per hour for the remainder of the system.

Trunkline said a meter maintenance outage that began last Monday at its Ragley (LA) interconnect with Transco has been extended through Friday’s gas day. Trunkline had previously expected the work to take four days (see Daily GPI, Jan. 9).

Gulf South reported verifying that the Eugene Island 44 platform on its offshore Eugene Island Burns System is operational and said it would attempt to confirm nominations at the location during the next nomination cycle Wednesday. The facility, operated by Helis Oil & Gas, was among others on the Burns System where Gulf South declared a force majeure Sept. 25, 2005 in the wake of Hurricane Rita. Force majeure conditions continue to exist at 14 other Eugene Island locations and affect Gulf South’s ability to provide service to them, the pipeline said.

Mechanical problems at Rutledge Compressor Station (see Daily GPI, Jan. 19) have been resolved and associated constraints have been lifted, Columbia Gas said Thursday.

Transco will begin an open season Friday morning that will take requests for up to 82,346 Dth/d of FT service on its Southeast Louisiana Lateral from Station 62 to Station 65. The capacity will become available starting April 1. The open season deadline is 5 p.m. CST March 6. See the bulletin board or call Debbie Autenreith at (713) 215-2917 for more information.

Iroquois is accepting bids through 3 p.m. EST Jan. 25 on two packages of capacity under its RTS rate schedule. Package #1 for up to 25,000 Dth/d is from South Commack (receipt point) to Waddington (delivery point). Its term is from Nov. 1, 2006 to Nov. 1, 2007 but the capacity will not be available during April and May of 2007, Iroquois said. Package #2 is for up to 37,000 Dth/d and has Hunts Point and Brookfield as respective receipt and delivery points. The capacity is available from Nov. 1, 2006 to Jan. 1, 2007. Details and a bid form can be found at the https://www.iroquois.com/ website.

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