Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) was in the process Tuesday afternoon of conducting a damage assessment of its pipeline facilities following a fire near the King Ranch gas processing plant in Kleberg County, TX. The plant is operated by Energy Transfer Partners.

“We are coordinating our efforts with Energy Transfer Partners,” KMI spokesman Richard Wheatley told NGI. “The incident occurred at approximately 9:26 a.m. central [time] Monday. Personnel subsequently isolated connecting pipelines, and regulatory notifications were made to appropriate agencies. There were no Kinder Morgan employees injured.”

Wheatley said the incident “…has affected multiple Kinder Morgan-operated pipelines and certain customer receipt and delivery points on Kinder Morgan Texas Pipeline, Tejas Pipeline, Border Pipeline and Monterrey Pipeline, as well as assets owned and/or operated by outside parties.

“There is no estimate at this time regarding the start or completion of repairs for affected pipeline segments.

“Shippers should continue to work with their Kinder Morgan scheduling representative for updates on the expected return of service at affected receipt and delivery points.”

The fire is believed to have occurred near a supply header to the plant. Energy Transfer spokeswoman Vicki Granado said the fire was not at the plant itself and that more details would be available later.

Williams Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) also connects with the King Ranch plant. Williams spokesman Chris Stockton told NGI that gas from the plant had been flowing intermittently to Transco and had not been flowing “for a number of weeks” before the incident.