The propane industry wants the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to pursue immediate action to address "dangerously low levels" of the commodity in some US regions due to weather and other factors.
The National Propane Gas Association on Thursday asked FERC to direct the Enterprise TE Products Pipeline "to temporarily provide priority treatment to propane shipments from Mont Belvieu, Texas, to locations in the Midwest and Northeast," according to a FERC notice.
NPGA also asked FERC to require the pipeline operator to suspend the 81,000 b/d it usually reserves for contract shippers of diluent.
The steps would run "through the first week of March 2014 or such time as the emergency is resolved," NPGA said in a request earlier the same day.
NPGA said the move is necessary to address a shortage of propane in the Midwest and Northeast, driven in part by "severe winter weather in December and January followed immediately after a strong crop-drying season."
The group also noted a January Energy Information Administration report that pointed to those and other factors as the reason for spiking prices and low inventories.
"There is no question that additional propane is desperately needed in the Midwest and Northeast. There are, however, few options for providing such supplies," NPGA said.
The group said the Enterprise TE Products Pipeline currently has insufficient capacity to move the amount of propane needed to address the shortfall unless a policy change is made.
"As it takes two to three weeks for propane to travel from Mont Belvieu to storage facilities in the Midwest and Northeast via Enterprise TE, additional supplies of propane must begin flowing immediately to avoid critical shortages at the end of February. Unless the allocation policies on Enterprise TE are modified to immediately allow more propane to flow, propane will not reach the Midwest and Northeast in time to avoid further critical disruptions and consequences," NPGA said.
The trade group went on to say that "without commission action ... Enterprise TE believes that it lacks the certainty it needs to modify its allocation policies to allow these shipments to flow."
In a related development, the governors of Michigan, Wisconsin, Kansas and other Midwestern states sent President Obama a letter Tuesday asking him to take immediate steps to address the propane shortage and high prices.
The governors called for FERC, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Energy, and other federal agencies to "take every possible action to help increase propane supplies through every means of transport."
"We encourage you to explore regulatory waivers aimed at increasing the supply of propane in our states, including an extension of the hours of service waiver and temporarily waiving weight limits on the interstate highway system. Such actions would continue to help fill critical gaps between supply and demand," the governors said.
