Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is investigating the source of a leak near an 18-inch Shell pipeline in St James Parish, LA, the agency said in an emailed statement.
The line will be excavated to determine the source of the release, which occurred in an area where other pipelines are located. PHMSA’s investigation and the excavation process are both ongoing.
Shell shut the 18-inch Houma-St. James, Louisiana portion of its Zydeco crude pipeline early Wednesday after it identified a crude oil release near its St. James Junction facility. The pipe transports crude arriving at Houston to markets in the east including Louisiana. It also receives production coming in from Gulf of Mexico fields at Houma.
Despite this outage, Zydeco shipments destined for St. James can still make it to the critical hub. Zydeco barrels that arrive at Houma can flow further east on the system to Clovelly, LA. From there, volumes can get on the 1.2 MMb/d LOCAP system which ends at St. James. Throughput on LOCAP was last estimated at around half a million barrels a day.
Zydeco system runs from Houston to St. James, comprising four major segments (see map below), each with varying capacities; the largest of which is 375 Mb/d.
