Exco Plant Fatality

This is not helping their perceived safety record in NW La.  If this was Chesapeake, somehow I think it would have been front page news.

Jay

 

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- EXCO Resources, Inc. (NYSE:XCO- News) (“EXCO”) today announced that an incident occurred at its 50% owned TGGT Holdings, LLC (TGGT) amine treating facility in northwest Red River Parish, Louisiana on May 28, 2011. Appropriate governmental authorities were notified and have worked with us in response to the incident. This incident resulted in the death of an EXCO employee, injury to a contract employee of TGGT, and an ongoing interruption of service at the facility.

 

 

The treating facility, which is north of Coushatta, Louisiana, was shut down immediately. As a precautionary measure, another TGGT amine treating facility located in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana was also shut down pending results of company directed investigations into causes and remediation actions. At this point, substantially all of the natural gas production has been re-routed to alternate pipeline facilities and is flowing to sales. The shut down at these facilities reduced EXCO’s net production by an estimated 80-100 Mmcf per day for a six day period. As of today, approximately 10-20 Mmcf per day of EXCO’s net production remains shut in pending space availability on alternate pipelines or resumption of treating operations at TGGT’s plants. The TGGT plant involved treats approximately 450 gross Mmcf of natural gas per day. Combined, both of the TGGT treating facilities treat approximately 900 gross Mmcf per day. EXCO’s drilling and completion activities were unaffected and continue as planned. It is expected that production interruptions could continue for several weeks. Although natural gas production levels are substantially restored as gas has been routed to alternative pipelines, we continue to incur firm transportation charges of approximately $35,000 per day, net to EXCO.

 

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Permalink Reply by jffree1 on June 6, 2011 at 6:12
I've read several different articles about the "incident" and none of them come right out and say what the "incident" was.  Any ideas?
Permalink Reply by Max on June 6, 2011 at 11:19

Yes, all the articles were about the same, nothing on what happened.  I expect equipment failure because they shut down the other one.

 

 Amine treating equipment:

 

http://alliedeq.com/gas_amine.html

Permalink Reply by Big Daddy, bcnr on June 6, 2011 at 14:58
Ditto SES, And I would have to agree with Jay. This was/is being downplayed by the media. Given the pressure involved, one might speculate a massive failure of a fitting but the chemicals involved (especially H2S) are quite deadly themselves. Guess we will have to wait and see.
Permalink Reply by Henry on June 7, 2011 at 4:40
Maybe the difference is in how it was handled....  EXCO appears to be taking this seriously by shutting down two plants -- not just the one where the accident happened.  If memory serves me, there was a lot of denial and finger pointing at the other guy regarding the death of the cows, and it took a while for the owners to get compensated.  So the message seems to be you should admit your wrong, fix it quickly, and make things right.
Permalink Reply by Buddy on June 7, 2011 at 8:05
Don't you know Anthony Weiner is telling himself the same thing????
Permalink Reply by Les Bamburg on June 7, 2011 at 3:25
BD, it is highly unlikely the fatality would have been related to H2S as the concentration would be very low due to the significant dilution with CO2 in the acid gas stream.  These type plants/units are operated all across the US and only a limited number would have high concentrations of H2S present.  Most other chemicals utilized are not particularly hazardous unless consumed. 
Permalink Reply by harley on June 7, 2011 at 13:34
I agree Les. Amine may be a little hard to wash off but should be about it. Although it is pretty warm on the regen side in areas. The same with Glycol but you definitely would not want to ingest it. Could have been many things such as a compressor not purged correctly after being vented down or just plainly a pipe or vessel failure. A nipple out of a vessel could blow out and at 1200 psi not be pretty.
Permalink Reply by harley on June 11, 2011 at 8:25
I am hearing that this was possibly a flash tank explosion in the amine plant.
Permalink Reply by Marc Schulz on June 12, 2011 at 6:04

Les

The H2S concentration multiplies in the acid gas stream, from the natural gas stream by a factor of the CO2 / Natural gas ratio. If there is a 100 ppm H2S concentration in the gas stream and 4% CO2 (1/25th of total flow), the Acid gas stream will contain 2500 ppm H2S and the balance CO2. It is diluted by CO2 but still a much higher concentration than in the natural gas stream.

There are many amine plants in operation, this is true, and many have several percent in the acid gas stream.

 

Permalink Reply by jffree1 on June 7, 2011 at 2:13

Update:

Two area natural gas treatment facilities are temporarily idled while state and federal authorities continue to investigate an explosion on May 28 that took the life of a worker and injured another.

 EXCO Resources Inc. announced the decision Monday in a news release. The shutdowns, which could last several more weeks, affect the amine treating facility north of Coushatta in Red River Parish, where the accident occurred, along with the Holly compressor station north of Mansfield in DeSoto Parish. Exco jointly operates the Red River location under the name TGGT Holdings LLC through a 50-50 partnership with British Gas.

EXCO employee Michael Tartt, 47, of Choudrant, died instantly when one of the pipelines that make up the treatment plant exploded.

An unidentified TGGT Holdings contract employee, who was not in the immediate area where the accident occurred, was treated and released after spending a day in the hospital, authorities said.

The initial investigation indicates "an enormous amount of pressure accumulated in the pipelines ... and there was an explosion," state police Troop G spokesman Cordell Williams said Monday.

The state police hazardous materials unit has an investigator assigned to work with company officials and federal authorities to determine what caused the pressure buildup.

 

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20110607/NEWS05/106070318/Na...|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s

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