More background on offline NG processing plants, 4.25 bcf/d:
Enterprise Gas Plants Seen Down For Weeks, Stoking Worry
Dow Jones Real-Time News for InvestorsSM
10:39 a.m. 09/02/2005
By Spencer Jakab
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Enterprise Products Partners' (EPD) announcement Thursday that three gas processing plants they partially own remain off line with details sketchy as to when they might return to service is stoking concerns about prolonged supply outages.
Enterprise said that its Toca Plant, which processes 1.1 billion cubic feet of gas a day, may be online within a few weeks. It could not give a more specific timeline for its 1.85 billion cubic feet a day Yscloskey plant and its 1.3 billion cubic feet a day Venice plant, both operated by Dynegy (DYN).
"It's too early to tell," said Enterprise spokesman Randy Burkhalter, who explained that crews haven't entered the facilities to inspect them because of flooding.
While Enterprise said there was little visible structural damage at the facilities in question, Ron Brunner, director of technical services at the Gas Processors Association, said the flooding is a serious issue in and of itself.
"If it's underwater, you've got electric motors that need to be replaced and turbines that could be damaged," he said. "If it's underwater, you've got a problem."
Another analyst familiar with the facilities agreed: "Remember, you have salt water against metal."
Other obstacles to getting the plants operational include securing power supplies, having passable roads and finding key personnel. Many local staff were evacuated and have had their homes damaged or destroyed.
Even if all three plants can be brought on line within the time frame of a few weeks estimated by the company for the Toca plant, the outages would be significant. For example, the curtailment of gas flows capable of being processed by the plants for three weeks would be 90 bcf, whereas the entire amount injected into underground storage in the U.S. as a whole last week was 58 bcf.
Approximately 7.86 billion cubic feet a day of gas production was reported off line in the Gulf of Mexico Thursday. While damage to pipelines and platforms doesn't appear to be severe in most cases, prolonged outages at the three treatment plants could prove to be a bottleneck to restoring supplies. About 70% of gas from the Gulf needs to be processed, according to Brunner.
"The impact depends on whether it takes longer to get the processing plants up than it does to get the wells up and running," said Daphne Magnuson, a spokesperson for the American Gas Association. |
