BPs Destin Gas Pipeline Declares Force Majeure

BP has declared a force majeure for their Destin natural gas pipeline after the discovery of fluid in high levels at a Mississippi compressor station, affecting all offshore production in the Gulf of Mexico.

The 255-mile Destin natural gas pipeline is responsible for delivering up to 1.2 billion cubic feet of gas a day in the Gulf of Mexico, and transports to nine major U.S. pipelines from the Gulf and extending further north than Mississippi. 

Destin had reported on their website that they will currently experiencing operational issues that is to effect all offshore productions and that the stoppage would be in continuance until further notice is issued.  They identified the issue as high levels of fluid at the Pascagoula liquid handling facility in Mississippi and that it leaves them unable to provide any transportation services or to accept nominations from any offshore receipt points. 

A BP spokesman clarified to say that essentially there is too much liquid in the pipeline to handle and continue operations.  He added that their primary goal is to safely resolve the fluid problem, and is the only way for the operations to resume as normal. 

Map of Destin's operations, courtesy of http://www.destin-pipeline.com

 

There will be an investigation to determine the cause of the incident. As of now, natural gas analysts do not anticipate that the force majeure will cause a significant outage for the market. According to Dow Jones Newswire, BP owns 67% of Destin, and the other 33% is owned by Enbridge Offshore.