Two Explosions Rock Mississippi Natural Gas Plant
June 28 2016 - 11:50AM
Dow Jones News
Two explosions and a fire rocked a natural gas plant in southern
Mississippi on Monday night, but no one was injured, authorities
said.
Emergency Management Director Early Etheridge in Jackson County
said the first explosion occurred at 11:30 p.m. and was followed by
a larger explosion minutes later. Mr. Etheridge said the second
blast could be felt up to 10 miles away.
"The two workers on duty were in a safe room at the time of the
two explosions and were not injured," Mr. Etheridge said.
"The explosion and fire which followed has heavy damaged the
processing area," he said.
Mr. Etheridge added that the fire still burned Tuesday morning
but "has diminished over the past several hours."
Firefighters continued to stream water on the fire, he said.
"What's burning now is residue in the lines," he said. "We
aren't sure how long it will continue to burn."
The plant located near Pascagoula had just been sold to the
minority owner, Enterprise Products Partner L.P., from majority
owner BP.
Company spokesman Rick Rainey said the Houston-based company had
owned 40% and BP 60%.
"Once the fire is out, we'll launch an investigation into the
cause of the explosion and fire," Mr. Rainey said.
The Mississippi plant removes the liquid from natural gas and
ships it to utilities along the East Coast, Mr. Rainey said. The
liquid is then sent to other plants where propane and butane are
produced.
"We do not know at this time how long with plant will be
offline," Mr. Rainey said.
He said the plant has a capacity of 1.5 billion cubic feet of
natural gas a day, but the plant was nowhere near its capacity.
Copyright 2016 Associated Press
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 28, 2016 11:35 ET (15:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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