Destin pipeline reroutes offshore gas flows

OREANDA-NEWS. June 30, 2016. Destin pipeline will allow shippers to move natural gas to the Viosca Knoll Gathering system as soon as this evening, providing an alternate route for shuttered US Gulf of Mexico production.

The BP-operated 1.2 Bcf/d (34mn m?/d) Destin pipeline was unable yesterday to receive gas from its offshore receipt points following a fire at the Pascagoula gas plant. Destin personnel today were traveling to MP260 and MP261, two offshore platforms, to complete the work necessary to allow gas to reach Viosca Knoll, according to a pipeline notice.

Flows from Destin will be limited to 350mn cf/d and should continue for two to five days. Condensate liquids will be unable to flow to Viosca Knoll and will build up on the Destin pipeline. The alternate service will cease once 8,000 bl of condensate accumulate, the pipeline said.

Enterprise Products Partners shut its 1.5 Bcf/d Pascagoula plant yesterday after at 12:30am ET fire.

The cause is under investigation and no one was injured, Enterprise said. The plant was averaging just 400mn cf/d of inlet volumes.

The plant includes a 10,000 b/d liquids removal facility and receives offshore production from Destin. The onshore section of that pipeline, which extends north from the plant, continues to operate normally, the pipeline said.

The fire caused Murphy Oil to shut its Thunder Hawk oil and gas platform in the US Gulf of Mexico, which takes gas to the Enterprise plant. Murphy was making plans yesterday to move gas into an alternate facility and said it expected minimal disruptions to its operations.

Thunder Hawk is in the Mississippi Canyon region in the Gulf of Mexico about 145 miles (233km) southeast of New Orleans, Louisiana.