Kinder Morgan Shuts Texas Oil Terminal After Fire

(Bloomberg) — Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP said a fire late yesterday shut its Pasadena oil terminal in Texas, which connects refineries from along the Gulf Coast to pipelines serving the eastern and Midwest U.S.

“We are having to pull barrels from other origin points,” Steve Baker, a spokesman for Colonial Pipeline Co., which transports fuel from the terminal, said in a telephone interview today. “That is a large tank farm with a lot of supply.”


The blaze, which broke out in a pipeline manifold, is now under control and is “down very low,” Joe Hollier, a spokesman for Kinder Morgan, said in a telephone interview today. The company is planning to resume “limited operations,” later today, he said.

The fire started at 10:30 p.m. local time yesterday. One employee was injured and taken to hospital. The cause of the fire and extent of damage is unknown, according to Hollier. “The fire was contained in the manifold pit,” which links pipelines pumping gasoline products, he said.

The Pasadena plant is part of the company’s Houston complex, taking oil products from refineries in Houston, Texas City, Corpus Christi, Baytown and Sweeny and pumping them into the Colonial, Teppco, Explorer and Magellan pipeline systems, according to a diagram on Kinder Morgan’s Web site.

“Their tank farm is a gathering point for barrels shipped on Colonial and Explorer pipelines,” said Colonial’s Baker.

Bloomberg