Northern Natural Gas, operator of the Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System (MOPS), has posted a tentative plan for returning MOPS to service. In a project to disconnect and abandon the Matagorda Island 686C compression platform, the 24-inch diameter line was shut in and blown down June 12 from Mustang Island 758 to the onshore Tivoli, TX, processing plant. The project was expected to be completed July 16, but weather problems plagued the subsea work and the outage was extended, a Northern spokeswoman said. The work caused 21 receipt points and seven delivery points to be shut in. Eight MOPS platforms in addition to Mustang Island 758 will be brought on-line Monday and Tuesday to pressure test the system and bring the mainline back to normal operating pressure. On Wednesday a pig will be launched from the Mustang Island 758 platform to clear accumulated liquids from the mainline. Nominations will be accepted for Wednesday’s gas day for the nine platforms listed (see bulletin board) to facilitate the pigging activity. The pig is expected to be received at the Tivoli plant on or before July 29, and it is expected to take a minimum of three days afterward to process the liquids. All platform production will be shut in during the liquids processing. Once the liquids have been processed the MOPS system will return to normal operations, which is expected to be for the Aug. 2 gas day.

Florida Gas Transmission kept an Overage Alert Day for market-area customers that was issued Wednesday in effect Thursday, but lowered the tolerance for negative daily imbalances from 25% to 20%.

Northwest reported “consistently” receiving gas at the Sand Springs receipt point on the July 17-18 gas days that exceeded its tariff specification for hydrocarbon dew point. To maintain pipeline integrity and meet interconnect quality specifications, Northwest began limiting receipt volumes at Sand Springs to 220,000 Dth/d effective with the Intraday 1 nominations cycle for Thursday’s gas day. It quoted tariff Section 3.1(a)(1): “The hydrocarbon dew point of the gas delivered shall not exceed [15] degrees Fahrenheit at any pressure between 100 psia and 1,000 psia as calculated from the gas composition and shall be free from hydrocarbons in the liquid state.”

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