Columbia Gulf Transmission (CGT) resumed partial flows late Wednesday evening after temporarily suspending production-area receipts Wednesday due to its Hartsville (TN) Compressor Station being heavily damaged by a fiery explosion caused by a tornado strike Tuesday night (see Daily GPI, Feb. 7).

About 1.2 Bcf/d is bypassing Hartsville on Line 300 after the pipeline determined it was safe to reactivate that line, Columbia Gulf spokesman Kelly Merritt said Thursday morning. Total system capacity is 2.1 Bcf/d. The volume at Hartsville is dependent on how much gas can be moved through the Delhi Constraint Point in northeast Louisiana, he said.

Columbia Gulf also is accepting receipts in the Gulf Coast production area again, he added. Merritt did not know if receipts are being allocated due to the pipeline’s current limited capacity but said interruptible transportation service is available. Columbia Gulf continues to keep customers whole by using storage as needed, he said.

In addition to the restoration of flows at Hartsville, Columbia Gulf reported that downstream affiliate Columbia Gas Transmission (TCO) successfully tested a contingency plan that provides for supply from TCO to Columbia Gulf. Up to 500,000 Dth/d was moved into Columbia Gulf at the Leach, KY, interconnect, where it was redelivered to TCO’s Line E at Means, KY. “If necessary, CGT could have also pumped the TCO supply at CGT’s Stanton Compressor Station for redelivery at Line E at higher pressures,” Columbia Gulf said. “With the commencement of flow on Line 300 and the anticipated schedule for placing Lines 200 and 100 in service, we do not expect to utilize the contingency plan based on the [five-]day TCO market forecast.”

Columbia Gulf expected to place Line 200 back in service Thursday evening, Merritt said, with Line 100 to follow sometime during Friday’s gas day.

“Flow and pressure are being increased through each line in a step-wise fashion that allows for the completion of leak patrols between increases in accordance with company and DOT [Department of Transportation] guidelines,” Columbia Gulf said in a Thursday afternoon update. “Once the Maximum Operating Pressure (MOP) is reached, the mainline capacity, which is being controlled at Delhi, LA, will be as follows:” Line 300, 1.2 million Dth/d; Lines 200 and 300, 1.3 million Dth/d; and Lines 100, 200 and 300, 1.5 million Dth/d. The last volume includes Line 100 operating at reduced MOP in accordance with a DOT corrective action order issued Dec. 19, 2007.

“From a commercial standpoint, given the reduced throughput through the mainline, customers are reminded that CGT is not allowing payback of imbalances or the creation of additional long (positive) positions, even though there are many short (negative) positions on the onshore and mainline pools resulting from this incident and the subsequent nonconfirmation of supplies to CGT on upstream pipelines,” the pipeline continued.

The DOT and the State of Tennessee have dispatched inspectors to the blast site. They’re trying to determine whether there were “any other safety factors that may have caused the pipeline to rupture,” other than the tornado, said Damon Hill, a spokesman for the DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

“There doesn’t seem like there was any wrongdoing by the company,” he noted. Hill confirmed that “one of the lines [Line 300] has been restarted and another [Line 200] was on the way to being restarted.”

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