What Do Louisiana Pipeline Explosion and Dakota Access Pipeline Have in Common? Phillips 66

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The day after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gave the owners of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) the final permit it needed to build its line across Lake Oahe, which connects to the Missouri River, a natural gas liquidsย pipeline owned by one of the DAPL co-owners exploded and erupted in flames in Paradis, Louisiana. ย Paradis is located 22 miles away from Newย Orleans.

That line, theย VP Pipeline/EP Pipeline, was purchased from Chevron in August 2016 by DAPL co-owner Phillips 66. One employee of Phillips 66ย is presumed dead as a result of the explosion and two were injured.

In aย press release published by Phillips 66 announcing its purchase of VP/EP, the company stated thatย โ€œapproximately 200 miles of regulated pipelines that carry raw NGLs from a third-party natural gas processing plant.โ€ A DeSmog investigation shows that the โ€œthird-party natural gas processing plantโ€ is owned by the company Targa Resources, and thatย plant is fed in part by a gas pipeline owned by Enbridge, another co-owner of Dakotaย Access.

Merchant ofย Venice

The Targa Resources plant is also known as the VESCO facility, with VESCO shorthand for the Venice Energy Services Company, located in Venice,ย Louisiana.ย 

โ€œThrough the Partnershipโ€™s 76.8% ownership interest in Venice Energy Services Company, L.L.C., [Targa] operates the Venice gas plantโ€ฆand the Venice Gathering System (‘VGS‘) that is approximately 150 miles in length,โ€ explains Targa’s 2016 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Annual Report. โ€œVESCO receives unprocessed gas directly or indirectly from seven offshore pipelines and gas gathering systems including the VGS system. VGS gathers natural gas from the shallow waters of the eastern Gulf of Mexico and supplies the VESCO gasย plant.โ€

Enterprise Product Partners and ONEOK serve as co-ownersย of VESCO. Among the seven pipelines connected to VESCO,ย one is owned by Enbridge, the Mississippi Canyon Gas Line. That Line feeds gas extracted from the Gulf of Mexico via two offshore wells owned by Shell, as well as other companies, according to Enbridge’sย website.ย 

Targa’s Venice Gathering System is fed by Gulf of Mexico offshore gas drilled byย Chevron, Apache Corporation and other companies, according to the Venice Gathering System website. VP Pipeline/EP Pipeline is part of what is known as theย Texaco Expanded NGL Distribution System (TENDS), which Phillips 66 has acquired and renamed theย River Parish NGL System.

โ€œThe $70 million TENDS project is an important element in TNGI‘s South Louisiana strategy embracing growth and development of new business,โ€ Texaco, since purchased by Chevron, said in a 1997 press release. โ€œTENDS consists of a network of pipelines capable of transporting a combined maximum of 230,000 barrels of product each day to numerous refineries and petrochemical complexes across Southย Louisiana.โ€

According to Reuters,ย VP Pipeline/EP Pipeline carries a natural gas liquid mix known asย โ€œy-grade.โ€

โ€œAfter being extracted in the field, mixed NGLs, sometimes referred to as ‘Y-grade’ or ‘raw NGL mix,’ are typically transported to a centralized facility for fractionation where the mixed NGLs are separated into discrete NGL products: ethane, ethane-propane mix, propane, normal butane, iso-butane and natural gasoline,โ€ states Targa’s website of the mix.

Agingย Pipelines

The New Orleans Advocate reported that VP Pipeline/EP Pipeline opened for business originally as aย pipeline in 1958. Like the line that connects to Dakota Access, the Energy Transfer Crude Oil Pipeline (ETCOP), it is decadesย old.

Built in 1947, ETCOP will carry the oil obtained from hydraulic fracturing (โ€œfrackingโ€)ย via North Dakota’s Bakken Shale basin from Patoka, Illinois toย Nederland, Texas.ย ETCOP was formerly known as the Trunkline Pipeline, which carried gas from south toย north.

Aging pipelines are seen as a major issue that could create catastrophes like those seen in Paradis, where the fire lasted for days until officials finally got it under control. The 2013 ExxonMobil-owned Pegasus Pipeline spill in Mayflower, Arkansas, which sawย 3,190 barrels (134,000 gallons) spew out of the line, ensued on an aging pipelineย constructed between 1947-1948.ย 

โ€œAbout 55% of the 135,000 miles of oil and gasoline pipelines in the U.S. was installed in 1969 or earlier, according to government data,โ€ reported CNN in September. โ€œThat’s before current safety regulations were in effect, Many are still cast ironย pipes.โ€

The BlueGreen Alliance, a collaborative ofย U.S. labor unions and environmental organizations, has pushed for aging pipelines to be repaired as part of a broad employment program. They called the effort the Repairing Our Citiesโ€™ Aging Pipelines initiative, or RECAP.

Image Credit: The Times-Picayune’s NOLA.com,ย YouTubeย screenshot

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Steve Horn is the owner of the consultancy Horn Communications & Research Services, which provides public relations, content writing, and investigative research work products to a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit clients across the world. He is an investigative reporter on the climate beat for over a decade and former Research Fellow for DeSmog.

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