Texas Eastern (Tetco) said Friday its delivery pressures haddropped below contractual levels due to cold weather and highmarket-area takes. Thus it issued an OFO, effective at 1 p.m. CTthat afternoon, requiring that all deliveries in its M-3 zone underall rate schedules be made at a uniform hourly rate. All M-3Operational Balancing Agreements were suspended for purposes ofhourly allocations only during the OFO period, the pipeline said.Penalties for non-compliance with the OFO were $25/dth. However,late Friday afternoon Tetco said the OFO was being suspended at 9a.m. Saturday because of forecasts of a “slight” warming trend.

The situation was much the same at Algonquin, a downstreamaffiliate of Texas Eastern. Algonquin issued a similar CriticalSystem Warning that took effect at 11 a.m. CT Friday. Alldeliveries were restricted to 1/24th of scheduled daily quantitieseach hour. However, late that afternoon Algonquin said it wascanceling the restrictions on hourly delivery rates effective at 10a.m. Saturday. Both Tetco and Algonquin said another cold front wasexpected Monday, and the restrictions would be reissued ifnecessary.

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