Report

Subject:                     DCP Midstream Texas gas plant, hub still closed

Date of Email report:   Thu 12/02/2009

Report Detail:

DCP Midstream said its natural gas processing plant and the Carthage Hub located in East Texas remained temporarily shut on Thursday following an explosion and fire on Wednesday.  The company said in a press release the explosion occurred when a pipeline owned by a third party and located outside of its property line ruptured at about 10 a.m. CST (1600 GMT) Wednesday.   There were no employees or contractors injured in the blast and no damage to the gas processing complex.  "We are thankful no one was injured in this incident and commend our employees for their immediate response, shutting down the facilities to ensure safety for themselves and others in the area," Richard Cargile, group vice president of operations for DCP Midstream, said in the release.  "We will seek to return our operations to service as soon as we are able to safely do so." 

A company investigation team was on site to assess damages to the Carthage Hub and determine the scope of work to return the facilities to service, but no estimate of when the facilities would be back was available.  The processing complex, located near the town of Carthage in East Texas, has a processing capacity of about 780 million cubic feet per day, with recent throughput of about 550 mmcfd.  The Carthage Hub, which is also shut, has approximately 1.5 billion cubic feet per day of delivery capacity.The East Texas facility, which processes liquids like ethane, propane and butane from raw natural gas, is operated by DCP Midstream and is a joint venture, owned 75 percent by DCP Midstream and 25 percent by DCP Midstream Partners

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