Two Killed in Second Fatal Texas Gas Pipeline Blast in Two Days

[phantom power]

June 9 (Bloomberg) -- Two people were killed and three injured after a natural gas pipeline exploded in the Texas Panhandle, the second deadly blast in the state in as many days.

A dirt contracting company was hauling rock from a pit about two miles (3 kilometers) northeast of the town of Darrouzett when a bulldozer struck the DCP Midstream Partners LP-owned pipeline, sparking yesterday’s explosion, according to a statement from the Lipscomb County Sheriff’s Department.

One person was killed June 7 when a contractor for a local power-line company struck the North Texas pipeline half-owned by Enterprise Products Partners LP. The incidents come as the BP Plc disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and two accidents in the Marcellus Shale area stoke concerns that the industry faces tighter regulations.

The gas explosions were “poor timing” given the spotlight on BP, Gavin Wendt, senior resource analyst with Mine Life Pty in Sydney, said by phone. “The BP spill is going to have major long-term consequences because it means there is going to be more in the way of environmental hurdles, legislative hurdles and regulatory hurdles.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601072&sid=ak9tpYqqi5pk

[Blue Owl]

1. Lately, all the world's problems seem to be caused by OIL

And they're big problems.

[LiberalEsto]

2. Maybe BP is trying to switch the focus from oil to gas nt

[Nihil]

3. Keep your hands up and step *away* from the tin-foil hat ...

:evilgrin:

Everything that happens can't always be pinned on BP, no matter how
hard people try.

It's about time that the "normal" (i.e., consistent, accepted & routinely
ignored) rate of fatal & non-fatal incidents involving fossil fuel started
to receive this degree of attention ... long overdue IMO ...

:shrug:

[TheMadMonk]

4. Apart from the if it wasn't there it couldn't happen aspect, this is no more...

...an oil industry problem, than a spill of caustic cleanser is a nuclear incident.

This was contractors who dug through a pipe and set the spilling contents on fire. Maybe they dug without checking. Maybe they were given bad information. Maybe they used a handyman class laser rangefinder with a 1% error margin and got the position of the pipe wrong. Hell, a little dick of a kid could have got onto the site and moved a survey peg the night before.

[PavePusher]

5. Hey, hey, hey...

None of that rational thought around here, mate... It's way more better fun to leap to conclusions without evidence, dontchyaknow.