US pipeline group says gas flowing, damage seen as minor so far

Knoxville, Tennessee (Platts)--31Aug2005

Although damage assessments are still ongoing, US natural gas pipelines
so far Wednesday are reporting only minor damage to compressor stations and
gas processing facilities as a result of Hurricane Katrina, according to
Martin Edwards III, vice president of the Interstate Natural Gas Assn of
America.
     "The systems are operational, and gas is flowing. Under the
circumstances, that's pretty good," Edwards told Platts. The next challenge
for the industry will be assessing damage and bringing production back
on-line, he said.
     Compressors and processing facilities tend to be the most difficult
things to repair on the gas delivery system, he noted. "Pipelines are a lot
easier to fix. It's just round steel--it's not complicated," Martin said. "But
the compression and processing units--that's what you want to pay attention to
first. That's the triage." 
     Edwards said he had not heard of any out-of-the-ordinary curtailments on
the system's gas pipeline system. The one concern has been deliveries to
Florida, which are highly dependent on Gulf of Mexico supply, he noted. "But
at this point they are still getting the gas they need and all obligations are
being met," Edwards said. 
     "This is an industry that has a lot of experience in dealing with
emergency situations on repairing pipelines," he said.

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