Southern Natural Gas declared an OFO Type 6 for long imbalances that takes effect Friday until further notice. No penalty will apply to long imbalances less than 2% or 200 dekatherms (whichever is less) in excess of scheduled volumes. Tiered penalties will be charged for imbalances greater than 2%, topped by $15/Dth for imbalances exceeding 8%. Southern said it was “highly likely” that the OFO will be extended through at least Saturday and Sunday.

CIG expressed concern Thursday that its ability “to absorb imbalances and to accept subsequent paybacks (associated with receipt points not operating at scheduled flow rates and then attempting to make up the difference later) will be limited” due to forecasts of cold weather for its service area combined with high firm transportation load factors. CIG said it expects operators “to manage their confirmations to match flow rates, factoring in [wellhead] freeze-offs and other conditions as necessary.” The pipeline expects to place caps during the scheduling process at underperforming meters throughout the upcoming weekend to reduce nominations to match the meters’ flow rates. “To avoid the need to make last-minute changes in supply, CIG is encouraging our shippers to contact their suppliers to ensure that…[they] are performing at their confirmed scheduled rates,” it said.

CIG also estimated that it would take one or two days to perform critical maintenance on one of five Rawlins Station compressors. A scheduling reduction of about 43 MMcf/d through the station (from base capacity of 600 MMcf/d) began with Cycle 2 nominations Thursday. CIG declared a force majeure in association with the work.

The Sea Robin Gas Processing Plant operated by Hess Corp. resumed processing at 1 p.m. CST Thursday, Sea Robin Pipeline said. The plant was shut down unexpectedly on Christmas Day (see Daily GPI, Dec. 27).

Southern reported completion of compressor repairs at its Muldon (MS) Storage Field (see Daily GPI, Dec. 27).

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