MOPS Shippers Come Down Hard on Owners' Plan to Terminate Service on the Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System Alleging Wide-Ranging Implications for Gas Production in the Gulf of Mexico

摘要

The MOPS Shippers, together and separately, this week blasted the plan of Northern Natural Gas Co.1 and co-owners (CP10-82) to close down the Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System (MOPS). An abandonment application was submitted on 3/5/10 jointly by Northern Natural, Southern Natural Gas Co., Florida Gas Transmission Co., LLC, Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co., LLC, and Enterprise Field Services, LLC, for authority to abandon and to terminate all transportation and related services on the MOPS. The MOPS Shippers include Anglo Suisse Texas Offshore Partners, LLC, Apache Corp., Chevron U.S.A. Inc., EOG Resources, Inc., Medco Energi US LLC, and Pisces Energy LLC. The protesting shippers warned that significant costs and harm would result to small producers, shippers, their customers, and the marketplace due to lost and shut-in natural gas and liquid condensate if Northern and the other joint owners are permitted to cease providing the transportation and related services on the MOPS that is required under the certificate. (FNGR No. 2787, pp16-18)