Posted on 10/10/2013 5:35:35 AM PDT by thackney
A natural gas pipeline fire in rural northwest Oklahoma was extinguished on Wednesday morning with no injuries reported, and the company that owns it, Northern Natural Gas, is working to determine the cause of the blast, a company spokesman said.
The fire occurred at 11 p.m. CST on Tuesday (0400 GMT Wednesday) in a remote and rural area in Oklahoma's panhandle, and could be seen up to 50 miles away, according to local media reports. No injuries were reported.
About "a half dozen" area volunteer fire departments responded to Tuesday night's blaze, said Mike Loeffler, spokesman for Northern Natural Gas.
The incident will not disrupt any service to the company's market area, he said. The affected section of the pipe was isolated and the remaining gas emptied from that portion of the line, he said.
"For safety reasons, we monitored the line last night and approached the pipeline this morning when it was under control," Loeffler said, adding that the investigation could take up to several weeks. "After all the information is gathered, we will start repairs, but there will be absolutely no disruption to service."
(Excerpt) Read more at rigzone.com ...
We had a small line rupture outh of Big Spring TX day before yesterday. No injuries!
Eco-terrorists?
Unlikely. Moving flammable compressed hydrocarbons has it risks in mechanical systems.
I remember an explosion in a rural area near Okmulgee OK, many years ago. Investigations showed that gas companies used a thinner pipe in the rural areas and a thicker pipe in urban areas.
That may be a FERC requirement, not the thinner but the thicker than design would call for otherwise. My suspicions would be more related to corrosion and proper maintenance and inspection. The thicker wall is more forgiving of bad operations, but not actually required to be safe with proper operations.
As population densities increase, additional requirements get added to the pipeline design. Just like a 2 lane rural Texas road can get a 70 mph speed limit, but not through a significantly populated area.
My money's on Greenie sabotage.
My money is on equipment failure, like due to insufficient maintenance.
Care to make a $20 wager? Looser pays Free Republic, completely on our honor, no verification.
A local failure on a pipe in an underground storage area was determined to have been due to an internal scratch during the manufacture or construction. Took somewhere from 20-40 years to failure.
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