Repair

Columbia Gas Transmission LLC said in an update to shippers that the damaged Leach XPress line in Marshall County, WV, isn’t likely to return to service until the middle of this month.

Columbia Gas Transmission LLC’s (TCO) Leach XPress pipeline was still out of service on Thursday, a week after an explosion and fire in Marshall County, WV, knocked out volumes and forced the company to issue a force majeure.

Researchers from Stanford University said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) overestimated how much it would cost the oil and gas industry to monitor and repair methane leaks at its facilities, and how many leaks would be found, when it updated embattled rules governing emissions last year.

Hilcorp Alaska said Monday that dive crews were working to repair a leaking eight-inch diameter natural gas pipeline in the Middle Ground Shoal area of the Cook Inlet. The leak point, approximately two inches in length, was noted to be on the very bottom of the pipeline resting on a boulder embedded in the seafloor, Hilcorp said. Following completion of the initial repair, further inspection and work will be done to permanently repair the affected segment of pipe. The line will not be returned to service until permanent repairs have been completed, the line has been pressure tested, and regulators have approved a re-start, Hilcorp said.

Maryland lawmakers voted Thursday to approve a bill that enables utility companies to impose a surcharge on customers of up to $2/month to pay for repair and replacement of aging pipe and distribution lines.

Transco said it is conducting unplanned maintenance to repair a leak on its Southeast Louisiana Lateral in Terrebonne Parish, LA, and asked operators of receipt points upstream of the affected area to shut in immediately. The outage affects flows of about 100,000 Dth/d, and Transco said effective Tuesday it was not scheduling or confirming quantities at the upstream points until the maintenance is complete, which it estimated will take seven days.

Rockies Express (REX) said an outage of one unit at Bertrand Compressor Station experienced Thursday kept it unavailable Friday although repair crews worked on resolving the issue. However, at the current level of scheduled quantities (both Intraday 1 and Timely) through Segment 250, scheduling reductions were not necessary Friday, REX said, but if nominations increase for future cycles, a force majeure may be required.

Southern said further investigation found “significant internal damage” at Hall Gate Compressor Station, and while a repair plan is being developed, the return to service date of the facility is unknown. The pipeline also said personnel were reviewing required maintenance plans at other stations in the area in an effort to minimize any further capacity impacts. For now no FT impact was anticipated and no service reductions as a result of the Hall Gate outage due to requirements exceeding capacity of an upstream compressor station have occurred. However, reductions of up to 50,000 Dth/d of available interruptible service could occur if system conditions change, Southern said.

Tennessee declared a force majeure event and required the shut-in of the Vermilion 261A meter in order to repair a leak on its 509A-1200/509A-1100 Line offshore southwest Louisiana. Tennessee said Monday it is not requiring any adjustments to nominations for the meter at this time, but requires that physical flows be kept to zero until further notice.