Company: Cause of New Mexico Natural Gas Pipeline Rupture Unknown
LOVING, N.M. (AP) – A Houston-based energy company says it’s investigating what caused one of its natural gas pipelines to rupture, explode and catch fire in southeastern New Mexico’s oil patch.
Spokesman Rick Rainey of Enterprise Products Partners L.P. says the incident early Wednesday morning in a sparsely populated rural area south of Carlsbad involved a line that transfers gas from wells to a treatment facility.
Eddy County Emergency Manager Jennifer Armendariz says there are no reported injuries but that one storage building burned before authorities shut down the pipeline to extinguish the fire.
Armendariz says authorities first had to identify what company’s pipeline was involved.
The incident caused the closure of two nearby highways. U.S. 285 was reopened to traffic late Wednesday morning while State Route 31 remained closed.
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