Repairs are under way and expected to be completed by mid-week on Bison Pipeline, a section of which experienced a rupture last week in Wyoming (see Daily GPI, July 25), shutting in the pipeline. A spokesman for TransCanada Corp., owner of Bison, told NGI the preliminary investigation into the cause of the rupture has determined that it was the result of mechanical damage. “Something struck the pipe,” said spokesman James Millar. However, he could not say whether there was excavation taking place in the area of the rupture in Campbell County, WY. TransCanada is working with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration on its restart plan for the pipeline, Millar said. “When they approve that restart plan…then we can begin flowing gas on Bison.”

BP plc has been awarded two deepwater frontier blocks offshore Trinidad’s east coast. The company said its Trinidad operations account for 12% of its global oil and gas production and more than half of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago’s natural gas output. The awards are expected to double the acreage held by BP-controlled companies in Trinidad and Tobago. BP currently holds exploration and production licenses covering 3,600 square kilometers offshore the east coast of Trinidad, as well as stakes in all of Atlantic LNG‘s four liquefied natural gas production trains on Trinidad.

As the federal investigation of last year’s San Bruno, CA, pipeline rupture moves close to its completion, the operator of the ill-fated natural gas transmission pipeline, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E), continues to complete state-mandated hydrostatic pressure tests on all of its pipe in heavily populated areas for which there is no clear cut verification to support current operating pressures. A PG&E spokesperson told NGI that so far all of the hydrostatic tests have been successful and none of the tested pipeline segments has to have their pressure reduced. Earlier this month the San Francisco-based combination utility said it began reducing operating pressures on an additional 7.5 miles of pipeline segments and in some cases gas-fired power generation plants might be impacted, as well as the utility’s ongoing hydrostatic testing (see Daily GPI, July 6). The utility said its last pressure validation filing to state regulators was in June, and since then regulatory commission staff expressed concerns about additional pipeline pressure drops, but has not required additional data from PG&E.

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