Maryland Cove Point LNG feedgas drops after Virginia natgas pipe fire
July 26 (Reuters) - The shutdown of part of Canadian energy company TC Energy's Columbia Gas Transmission Pipeline in Virginia after a fire on Tuesday has reduced the amount of gas flowing to the Cove Point liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant in Maryland, the plant told customers.
Columbia Gas declared a force majeure and isolated a section of its pipeline after detecting a pressure drop due to an unplanned incident in Strasburg, Virginia, on Tuesday.
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Berkshire Hathaway Energy's Cove Point said in a note to customers that gas supplies from Columbia Gas's Loudoun LNG interconnect were currently at or near zero.
Cove Point, which can get gas from other pipes, was on track to pull in about 0.4 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of gas on Wednesday, down from an average of 0.8 bcfd in the months prior to the Columbia pipeline incident.
One billion cubic feet is enough gas to supply about five million U.S. homes for a day.
The fire was extinguished on Tuesday. TC Energy did not say if the fire caused the drop in pipeline pressure.
TC Energy on Wednesday said it is laying out plans to repair the impacted pipeline and return the adjacent pipelines to service.
There were no reported injuries to workers or members of the public and a section of the affected pipeline remains shut, the company said.
A source told Reuters the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is investigating the rupture associated with the 26-inch gas pipe.
On Monday before the incident, TC Energy said it will divest a 40% interest in its Columbia Gas Transmission and Columbia Gulf Transmission pipelines for C$5.2 billion ($3.95 billion) to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).
The pipelines span more than 15,000 miles (24,140 km) and deliver a substantial portion of daily U.S. gas demand, including about 20% of U.S. LNG export supply, according to TC Energy. (Reporting by Brijesh Patel, Arpan Varghese, Ashitha Shivaprasad and Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru and Scott DiSavino in New York, editing by Deepa Babington and Chris Reese)