Force majeure declared after Louisiana natural gas pipeline explosion

Supply of natural gas to Gulf Coast could be disrupted

By Maria Varmazis -- Purchasing, 12/17/2007 9:13:00 AM

NiSource declared a force majeure on all three of its lines of the Columbia Gulf natural gas pipeline on Friday after one of the pipelines exploded in northeast Louisiana, killing one person and injuring another. All three pipelines—lines 100, 200 and 300—carrying natural gas to the Midwest, Northeast and Southeast U.S. were immediately closed down following the explosion, though line 300 was reopened by Friday evening. NiSource has made no estimates when lines 100 and 200 will reopen.

“It will impact the supply of gas as Atmos and others reroute gas from one pipeline to another,” says Rand LaVonn, a spokesman for Atmos Energy, a natural gas distributor. “It’s too early to say what impact this will have on the price of gas.”