Friday afternoon Enterprise Products Partners LP was awaiting word from federal authorities on whether it could flow gas on a bypass of a Gulf of Mexico (GOM) platform that was damaged when a piece of equipment exploded and caused a fire late Tuesday.

About 240-250 MMcf/d of gas was temporarily shut in on the the High Island Offshore System (HIOS) due to an explosion and compressor fire that occurred on a platform at High Island 264, according to platform owner Enterprise. The company was hoping to restore some flows by bypassing the platform, but it needed approvals from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) as well as the U.S. Minerals and Management Service (MMS).

“…[W]e would be in a situation to resume flows within a few hours after receiving federal approval from PHMSA and MMS for our bypass plans,” Enterprise spokesman Rick Rainey told NGI Friday.

HIOS transports gas from fields in the western GOM to pipelines off the coast of Louisiana, including ANR and Tennessee Gas Pipeline.

The U.S. Coast Guard responded to a compressor fire aboard the platform about 90 miles southeast of Galveston, TX, shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday. When the Cutter Manta arrived about 3 a.m. Wednesday the fire had been extinguished and there were no injuries (see Daily GPI, Aug. 6).

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