Florida Gas again issues shipper alert due to cold

NEW YORK Jan 6 (Reuters) - Florida Gas Transmission on Wednesday issued the latest in a string of warnings to natural gas shippers as cold weather in the state was expected to boost demand on its pipeline system.

Below freezing temperatures continued to be forecast for much of the state, forcing the company to issue an overage alert at 5 percent tolerance, meaning shippers must stay within 5 percent of scheduled volumes in order to maintain system integrity, a website posting said.

The company said it would not interrupt previously scheduled service, but would closely monitor hourly and daily activity on its system.

Alerts, also called critical days, require natural gas shippers to adhere carefully to scheduled quantities. An overage alert signals that taking excess quantities offline would be harmful.

Florida Gas regularly issues shipper alerts as temperatures in the state vary extremely from normal, boosting gas and power demand as customers crank up heaters in the winter and air conditioners in warmer months.

Forecaster DTN Meteorlogix said temperatures in South Florida would range more than 20 degrees below normal this week, with highs topping out mostly in the 60s Fahrenheit (15 to 20 Celsius) and lows dipping into the 30s F (minus 1 to 4 C).

AccuWeather.com said northern cities would be even cooler, and a damaging freeze was expected to impact the state's citrus crops this week.

FGT, a subsidiary of Citrus Corp, operates a 5,000-mile natural gas pipeline system extending from southern Texas to southern Florida, transporting 2.2 billion cubic feet per day of supply.

Citrus Corp is 50 percent owned by Southern Union Co (SUG.N) and 50 percent owned by El Paso Corp EP.N. (Reporting by Eileen Moustakis; Editing by Walter Bagley)