alliance update note : alliance announced an october 30 official in - service date for tariff
services ; however , they will be selling test gas in
ramp up period . right now , these first deliveries are going into the anr
system because it is the only interconnect that is
ready .
alliance delayed , but deliveries begin ramping up
after months of speculation in the industry , alliance pipeline confirmed
yesterday full commercial service will be delayed nearly a month until oct .
30 . when construction of the system was scheduled nearly three years ago ,
oct . 2 was the target date for commercial service .
however , the delay doesn ' t mean the market won ' t be getting any canadian gas
out of alliance until the end of october . the pipeline opened one of its
chicago delivery valves last thursday and started selling 50 - 100 mmcf / d of
gas into the market . it intends to increase its sales each week eventually
reaching its full 1 . 325 bcf / d load prior to switching to commercial service
on oct . 30 , said spokesman jack crawford .
" we got commission approval to actually sell our test gas . right now i think
we are dealing with three or four different marketers . our initial deliveries
right now are into the anr system . that ' s because its basically the only
connection that is ready , but over the next few weeks we expect they will all
be ready to go and we will test them all .
" i ' d be surprised if it ends up being regular [ volume increases of 100 mmcf / d
each week ] but that ' s kind of the game plan , " said crawford . " on oct . 29 it
will be alliance selling [ 1 . 325 bcf / d of ] test gas , and on oct . 30 it will be
shippers nominating at one end and delivering at the other . the market may
not see much of a difference . we obviously don ' t want to start charging our
shippers until we have the confidence that all the systems have been checked
out . "
the pipeline system is designed to deliver gas from producing regions of
northeastern british columbia and northwestern alberta to the chicago area
where the line interconnects with the north american pipeline grid .
currently , more than 99 % of the total pipeline system has been installed ,
including 14 mainline compressor stations , 37 receipt points in british
columbia and alberta , and 7 delivery points in illinois . commissioning
activities commenced in march , including the flowing of gas into the
completed sections of line to purge air from the pipe . at present ,
approximately 95 % of alliance has been purged of air . this includes all the
mainline portion of the system ( 1 , 857 miles ) from near gordondale , alberta to
the delivery section near joliet , illinois and 306 of 434 mile laterals
receipt portion of the system . additionally , 25 receipt point meter stations
have been commissioned . final commissioning activities are also being
completed at 14 mainline compressor stations . to date , 6 bcf of gas is in the
commissioned mainline and lateral portions of the system , with the ultimate
line pack targeted at 8 bcf .
crawford said there were a variety of factors that contributed to the delayed
start - up . " the rain in saskatchewan delayed us a bit back in july , but we
managed to catch up on the construction there in august . but it then meant
that some of our commissioning didn ' t get going until a little bit later .
farther west in alberta and bc in fact we ' ve had a couple of rain problems .
in particular , we have one relatively small but fairly long lateral that we
haven ' t even been able to get on the right of way yet and that ' s because of
rain .
" up in bc we ' ve been having trouble with a directional drill of a creek on
one of our laterals up there , " he said . " we ' re likely to get approval to
open - cut that creek , but that will take us probably the better part of a
month .
" on the downstream end , we had hoped to get more of our downstream
connections right now . we are testing one , but some of the others aren ' t
quite ready yet . we ' re ready , but they are not . then of course there is a
fairly complex interaction between the pipeline and the [ aux sable liquids ]
plant . we haven ' t had a chance to work on that yet . so when you look at all
of those things , the question was when could we establish a date when all
this stuff would be done and we would be operational . we spent a fair amount
of time with our shippers and they mentioned one other pipeline that was
being delayed one day at a time drove them to distraction . we agreed we would
pick one of three dates , all mondays : oct . 2 , oct . 16 or oct . 30 , and we just
had to pick one that we felt confident in . "
besides the timing of service , there has been another important question on
the minds of many market observers . will the gas alliance ships come oct . 30
be incremental gas or gas that would have been flowing through transcanada .
" i don ' t think it ' s going to be purely either way , " said crawford . " lots of
guys are targeting for nov . 1 to bring their new gas on to start the gas year
so it all depends on how much shows up . it ' s not a big secret that we ' ve had
some wet weather and some of the drilling and completion work hasn ' t gotten
done . that ' s likely to have some affect on it as well . that ' s a delay though .
how long are people going to pay $ 6 for gas ? boy , people are going to have a
lot of money for drilling and projects . "
alliance update
note : alliance announced an october 30 official in - service date for tariff
services ; however , they will be selling test gas in
ramp up period . right now , these first deliveries are going into the anr
system because it is the only interconnect that is
ready .
alliance delayed , but deliveries begin ramping up
after months of speculation in the industry , alliance pipeline confirmed
yesterday full commercial service will be delayed nearly a month until oct .
30 . when construction of the system was scheduled nearly three years ago ,
oct . 2 was the target date for commercial service .
however , the delay doesn ' t mean the market won ' t be getting any canadian gas
out of alliance until the end of october . the pipeline opened one of its
chicago delivery valves last thursday and started selling 50 - 100 mmcf / d of
gas into the market . it intends to increase its sales each week eventually
reaching its full 1 . 325 bcf / d load prior to switching to commercial service
on oct . 30 , said spokesman jack crawford .
" we got commission approval to actually sell our test gas . right now i think
we are dealing with three or four different marketers . our initial deliveries
right now are into the anr system . that ' s because its basically the only
connection that is ready , but over the next few weeks we expect they will all
be ready to go and we will test them all .
" i ' d be surprised if it ends up being regular [ volume increases of 100 mmcf / d
each week ] but that ' s kind of the game plan , " said crawford . " on oct . 29 it
will be alliance selling [ 1 . 325 bcf / d of ] test gas , and on oct . 30 it will be
shippers nominating at one end and delivering at the other . the market may
not see much of a difference . we obviously don ' t want to start charging our
shippers until we have the confidence that all the systems have been checked
out . "
the pipeline system is designed to deliver gas from producing regions of
northeastern british columbia and northwestern alberta to the chicago area
where the line interconnects with the north american pipeline grid .
currently , more than 99 % of the total pipeline system has been installed ,
including 14 mainline compressor stations , 37 receipt points in british
columbia and alberta , and 7 delivery points in illinois . commissioning
activities commenced in march , including the flowing of gas into the
completed sections of line to purge air from the pipe . at present ,
approximately 95 % of alliance has been purged of air . this includes all the
mainline portion of the system ( 1 , 857 miles ) from near gordondale , alberta to
the delivery section near joliet , illinois and 306 of 434 mile laterals
receipt portion of the system . additionally , 25 receipt point meter stations
have been commissioned . final commissioning activities are also being
completed at 14 mainline compressor stations . to date , 6 bcf of gas is in the
commissioned mainline and lateral portions of the system , with the ultimate
line pack targeted at 8 bcf .
crawford said there were a variety of factors that contributed to the delayed
start - up . " the rain in saskatchewan delayed us a bit back in july , but we
managed to catch up on the construction there in august . but it then meant
that some of our commissioning didn ' t get going until a little bit later .
farther west in alberta and bc in fact we ' ve had a couple of rain problems .
in particular , we have one relatively small but fairly long lateral that we
haven ' t even been able to get on the right of way yet and that ' s because of
rain .
" up in bc we ' ve been having trouble with a directional drill of a creek on
one of our laterals up there , " he said . " we ' re likely to get approval to
open - cut that creek , but that will take us probably the better part of a
month .
" on the downstream end , we had hoped to get more of our downstream
connections right now . we are testing one , but some of the others aren ' t
quite ready yet . we ' re ready , but they are not . then of course there is a
fairly complex interaction between the pipeline and the [ aux sable liquids ]
plant . we haven ' t had a chance to work on that yet . so when you look at all
of those things , the question was when could we establish a date when all
this stuff would be done and we would be operational . we spent a fair amount
of time with our shippers and they mentioned one other pipeline that was
being delayed one day at a time drove them to distraction . we agreed we would
pick one of three dates , all mondays : oct . 2 , oct . 16 or oct . 30 , and we just
had to pick one that we felt confident in . "
besides the timing of service , there has been another important question on
the minds of many market observers . will the gas alliance ships come oct . 30
be incremental gas or gas that would have been flowing through transcanada .
" i don ' t think it ' s going to be purely either way , " said crawford . " lots of
guys are targeting for nov . 1 to bring their new gas on to start the gas year
so it all depends on how much shows up . it ' s not a big secret that we ' ve had
some wet weather and some of the drilling and completion work hasn ' t gotten
done . that ' s likely to have some affect on it as well . that ' s a delay though .
how long are people going to pay $ 6 for gas ? boy , people are going to have a
lot of money for drilling and projects . "