Kinder Morgan shuts natural gas pipelines after explosion and fire
near the King Ranch gas processing plant in Kleberg County, Texas
(Reuters) - Kinder Morgan Inc said on Tuesday it shut several natural gas pipeline segments near the King Ranch gas processing plant in Kleberg County, Texas, after a fire on Monday morning.
The incident occurred in the area of a supply header where several pipes are connected, said Kinder Morgan spokesman Richard Wheatley.
He said no Kinder Morgan employees were hurt in the incident, which occurred at about 9:26 a.m. CDT (1426 GMT), adding that an investigation would begin as soon as the site was judged safe and any remaining fires were put out.
The incident affected service through certain Kinder Morgan segments, including the Texas pipeline, Tejas pipeline and Mexico-Monterrey pipeline, Wheatley said.
"We have a team onsite and are attempting to gain full access to the location," Wheatley said, adding he was unable to say whether the fire started with a pipe owned by Kinder Morgan or another company.
A spokesman at Williams Cos Inc said gas flows on its Transco pipeline, which is connected to the King Ranch processing plant, were not affected by the incident.
Officials at Energy Transfer, which owns the processing plant, were not immediately available for comment.
Gas flows between the King Ranch processing plant and Kinder Morgan's Tennessee Gas Pipeline fell to 9 million cubic feet per day on July 18, the day the fire started, but have returned to 88 mmcfd, putting the amount of fuel moving through the receipt point near its 30-day average of 91 mmcfd, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Gas traders said the Texas fire was having little effect on futures prices, noting that the latest hot weather forecasts and maintenance work on the Rockies Express pipe in the Ohio/Indiana area was having a bigger impact on the market.
"We are in touch with our customers and are determining impacts to them," Wheatley said.
He could not say how much gas was flowing through the pipes before the fire or how much had been curtailed. Wheatley said gas can still flow through the affected pipes, except sections that were shut in.
In a notification to the state pollution regulator on the Tejas pipeline, Kinder Morgan said "Sweet pipeline quality natural gas ignited."
The Tejas pipeline is a 3,400-mile intrastate system located primarily along the Texas Gulf Coast that transports, purchases and sells natural gas in the Texas intrastate market, according to the company website.
(Reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York; Harshith Aranya and Arpan Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Meredith Mazzilli)