Louisiana gas pipeline explodes in raging Inferno
Pastor Dale Morgan
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*Louisiana gas pipeline explodes in raging Inferno*
15 Dec 2007 00:45:38 GMT
Source: Reuters
HOUSTON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - A motorist was killed and another was
injured when the Columbia Gulf natural gas pipeline in northeast
Louisiana exploded on Friday afternoon near an interstate highway, said
a Louisiana State Police spokeswoman.
All three natural gas lines that make up Columbia Gulf Pipeline, which
carries natural gas to the Midwest, Northeast and Southeast United
States, were shut at the blast site near Delhi, Louisiana, pipeline
operator NiSource Inc <NI.N> said in a posting on its Web site.
Corbin Fawcett, 47, of Haleyville, Alabama, and George McCaleb, 58, of
Fayetteville, Alabama, were traveling east in a pickup truck on
Interstate Highway 20 when the pipeline exploded at about 1 p.m. CST
(1900 GMT), said Sgt. Julie Lewis of the Louisiana State Police.
Earlier media reports said the deceased man was fishing near the
pipeline when it exploded, but those were incorrect, Lewis said.
Fawcett was killed and McCaleb was taken to a hospital for treatment of
second-degree burns to his hands.
In the Web site posting, NiSource said it expected to resume moving gas
through one of the lines that make up the pipeline Friday night.
NiSource declared force majeure for the line on which the explosion
occurred. Force majeure is invoked when a company cannot comply with the
terms of a contract for reasons beyond its control.
"It's too early to say what impact this will have on the price of gas,"
said Rand LaVonn, spokesman for Dallas-based Atmos Energy Corp <ATO.N>,
the nation's largest natural gas-only distributor serving a dozen
states. Atmos also procures gas for industrial and municipal customers
in 22 states.
"It will impact the supply of gas as Atmos and others reroute gas from
one pipeline to another," LaVonn said. "We'll have to wait and see."
The Columbia Gulf pipeline stretches 4,200 miles (6,759 kilometers)
across Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky. It interconnects
with every major pipeline system on the Gulf Coast and moves gas to
markets in the U.S. Midwest, Southeast and Northeast.
About six miles of Interstate 20 will remain shut until Louisiana
officials determine that the highway and nearby bridges were not damaged
in the blast and following fire.
The two lines next to the line that blew up were shut for evaluation to
determine if they were damaged in the blast, NiSource said.
Natural gas is sold to utilities for home-heating and to produce
electricity, as well as to municipalities and industrial and
manufacturing companies. (Reporting by Erwin Seba, Joe Silha, Eileen
O'Grady, Bruce Nichols, Anna Driver and Robert Campbell, writing by
Erwin Seba; Editing by Marguerita Choy)