An offshore oil and natural gas pipeline was ruptured late Wednesday during a dredging operation in the Calcasieu Ship Channel near Cameron, La., though no oil pollution has yet been observed, the U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday.

The channel, which provides access to the port of Lake Charles, La., and its refineries from the Gulf of Mexico, was closed to all ship traffic Wednesday night, but was reopened to vessels with drafts of less than 32 feet early Thursday, the Coast Guard said in a news release.

The Coast Guard said officers on a morning flight above the area saw no oil pollution in the water.

The pipeline is linked to an offshore platform owned by El Paso Corp. (EP). That facility has been shut in, meaning that there is unlikely to be any more oil or gas released from the broken pipeline than there may have already been, the service said.

The pipeline's owner, a subsidiary of Enbridge Energy Partners LP (EEP), is being held responsible for the cleanup and is deploying personnel and skimmers to the scene, the Coast Guard said.

-By Ryan Dezember, Dow Jones Newswires, 713-547-9928, ryan.dezember@dowjones.com
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