09 October 2013, New York – Emergency crews extinguished a fire on Wednesday that blazed overnight on a natural gas pipeline in northwest Oklahoma owned by Northern Natural Gas Company.
An explosion at 11 p.m. CST on Tuesday (0400 GMT on Wednesday) in Harper County, about 150 miles northwest of Oklahoma City, sent flames into the sky that could be seen 50 miles away, local media reported. No injuries were reported.
“The fire has been extinguished,” a spokesman for Northern Natural Gas said. “We isolated that section of the line and let the gas burn down.”
An investigation into the explosion was underway and repairs were expected to begin on Wednesday, he said. Gas was rerouted and there was no disruption to deliveries on the pipeline that runs from Texas to the Upper Midwest.
There was no timeline yet for when the isolated section of the line would return to service. “It can take two days or several weeks,” the spokesman said.
Omaha, Nebraska-based Northern Natural Gas operates nearly 15,000 miles of natural gas pipelines in the United States, including interstate lines that runs from the Permian Basin in Texas to the Upper Midwest.
Northern Natural Gas is a unit of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co, which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated.
– Reuters
