Houston Pipe Line Co.’s (HPL) 30-inch diameter Texoma gas line ruptured Tuesday at 11:20 p.m. within Sunoco Logistics Partners’ oil import terminal in the Nederland-Port Neches area of East Texas. There were no injuries, according to Sunoco, but the rupture and explosion sent fire into the sky and knocked out service to gas-fired power generators at Sunoco’s 3 million b/d terminal.

Crude oil futures prices moved sharply higher on the news, and the rupture may have added some additional support to natural gas futures prices. However, HPL said there was no gas service disruption other than to the Sunoco plant. The fire was extinguished by about 1:30 a.m. The oil terminal, which can store 12.5 million b/d of crude and refined products, is expected to be back in operation on emergency power soon. The terminal occupies about 1,000 acres along the Neches River.

HPL’s Texoma line runs south from near the Texas-Oklahoma border to the Sunoco terminal on the Gulf Coast near Nederland, which is south of Beaumont, TX. The pipeline provides transportation service to a number of end-users in East and South Texas.

A spokesman for HPL’s parent company, American Electric Power, said gas was immediately shut in on the ruptured line. However, no volume details were provided. “We had automated equipment on the line that detected the drop in pressure that resulted from the rupture and shut off gas to that area,” said AEP’s Peter Main. “The line serves customers in the South Texas area. However, only the Sunoco terminal itself was affected by the rupture. We have no other customers out at this time.

“We have personnel on the scene doing damage assessment and beginning the process of investigation and repairs,” he said. “We don’t have an estimated return-to-service date.”

HPL operates 4,200 miles of natural gas pipeline with a total capacity of 2.4 Bcf/d. The pipeline system is designed to serve the highly-concentrated Houston Ship Channel market, the city of Houston, the Katy Hub, Beaumont/Port Arthur complex, Texas City, and Corpus Christi.

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