Gas flow resumes from Equitrans Pennsylvania site after November leak
Dec 2 (Reuters) - Equitrans Midstream Corp on Friday said it has received agency approvals to flow gas out of the Rager Mountain storage facility in Pennsylvania following a November natural gas leak that lasted for several days.
The site began flowing gas on Thursday, a day after it was approved, Equitrans said in an emailed response, adding it will continue to obtain the most accurate estimate of the leak that started on Nov. 6.
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Equitrans had estimated the size of the leak at about 100 million cubic feet per day, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
The flow of gas was stopped on Nov. 19 and an investigation to determine the cause of the incident is ongoing, the company said.
Two temporary bridge plugs were installed to stop the venting of gas and more than 250 feet of cement was pumped into the wellbore above the plugs to ensure venting does not recur.
"Equitrans is conducting a comprehensive review of all storage wells at Rager Mountain. The future status of storage well 2244 will be decided at a later date," it added.
Equitrans said Rager Mountain can store 9 billion cubic feet of gas. The leaking well, called the George L. Reade 1 storage well, was one of 10 operating storage wells at the facility.
The well is currently not in service, a source familiar with the investigation said on Friday.
The U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) continues its investigation into the cause of the leak and to determine whether enforcement action is necessary, the source said.
Equitrans said it is coordinating all post-incident response activities with DEP and PHMSA. (Reporting by Swati Verma in Bengaluru Editing by Chris Reese)