MidAmerican Energy Holdings subsidiary Northern Natural Gas said five employees were injured, none seriously, in an explosion and fire Tuesday morning at its Bushton Compressor Station in central Kansas. The company said the explosion did not disrupt market deliveries but gas did have to be rerouted around the station.

At 7:30 a.m. CDT, there was an explosion in building three at Northern’s compressor station near Bushton, KS. The company said that the injuries to five employees do not appear to be life threatening.

“The gas source has now been turned off and any fires that continue to burn appear to be related to oil from the compressors,” said spokesman Mike McGowan. “Northern’s crew is working with the local volunteer fire department and they are developing a plan to determine when it will be safe to enter the building and put the fires out. After the fire have been extinguished, we’ll be able to assess the damage and develop a repair plan and initiate a full investigation. In the meanwhile, all markets are being kept whole. There has been no impact to our market deliveries. Gas is being rerouted onto a bypass pipeline.”

McGowan couldn’t estimate how long the station would be out of service. As additional information becomes available, it will be posted on NNG’s website: https://www.northernnaturalgas.com/.

Northern’s system includes 16,600 miles of pipeline that stretch from the Permian Basin in West Texas to the Upper Midwest.

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