On October 9, 2018, there was a major pipeline rupture and fire on the Enbridge Westcoast Energy pipeline near Prince George, British Columbia. This was a major event – the pipeline is a key component of the Northwest gas system; it brings natural gas south from Western Canada, connects to the Williams Northwest Pipeline at the Sumas-Huntingdon border and continues south along the I-5 corridor through Washington and Oregon. Fortunately, the explosion occurred in a rural area and no injuries were reported.

Gas flow was completely cut off at the Sumas border to the Northwest resulting in a Force Majeure notice. In addition, the largest natural gas storage facility in the Northwest – Jackson Prairie in Southwest Washington – was closed for scheduled maintenance at the time of the pipeline rupture. 

  • The rupture occurred on the 36-inch diameter mainline pipeline. An adjacent 30-inch line in the same right of way was shut down due to the explosion but was safely re-started and started flowing gas soon after the incident at a reduced rate.
  • Williams quickly wrapped up maintenance on the Jackson Prairie Storage facility on October 19 and returned the facility to service
  • The Mist storage facility in Northwest Oregon was in service and was ready to go

There was sound cooperation between many of the affected utilities and their customers including – Puget Sound Energy, Avista, Fortis BC, Cascade Natural Gas, NW Natural, and the BPA to minimize hardship. There were interruptible industrial users that had natural gas direct use service curtailed, and in BC, some firm direct use customers of Fortis BC were curtailed.

A few other things:

  • October is a common time for gas storage facilities to undergo season maintenance in preparation for the winter. Gas storage is key component of the overall gas system for balancing and reliability.
  • Natural gas-fired power generation was temporarily reduced to help the system recover.
  • Gas prices at Sumas spiked in October and November of 2019 
  • There is more information available from the Power Committee presentation on the Gas-Electric Interface from October 9th – on the day this incident occurred.
  • There was also a major hurricane hitting the southeast at the same time and around 30% of the natural gas production in the Gulf was shut-in. We did an earlier discussion on hurricanes and natural gas supply and prices at the Council Meeting in Coeur D’Alene ID in November of 2017

After a fairly low-key January 2019, regional market prices for natural gas and electricity escalated substantially again in February and March. 

Daily spot prices for natural gas at the Sumas hub reached historic highs during this time. There were a variety of issues most likely driving the high prices, including

  • Strong demand for natural gas resulting from a very cold late winter
  • Scheduled maintenance on the southern section (T-South) of the Enbridge BC pipeline from mid-February through early March
  • Continued repercussions from the Enbridge BC Pipeline rupture in October of 2018
  • The average daily spot price for the month of February was $19.08 per MMBtu, up from $3.54 in January, and even higher than the average monthly price when the rupture occurred in the Fall
  • Daily prices hit $154 on March 4, but came back down below $3 by the end of the month

Daily prices at Opal (US Rockies) were also up significantly in February and March in the $7 range, while prices at AECO remained relatively low in the $2 range.

The market price situation in March of 2019 resembled the polar vortex in 2014 – when another late winter cold snap caused high demand and drove up natural gas and electricity prices.  That cold spell also caused “freeze-off” supply disruptions to gas coming from the US Rockies. In 2019, the natural gas supply disruption was more related to the Enbridge BC Pipeline issue.

Gas prices in 2020 have normalized. The Canadian Transportation Safety Board (TSB) concluded an investigation into pipeline rupture and fire in March of 2020. The investigation “found that stress corrosion cracking led to a pipeline rupture resulting in a fire near Prince George, British Columbia in 2018. Deficiencies in predicting the extent of cracking and a deferred inspection led to a hazard being undetected prior to the pipeline rupture”[1].

[1] https://www.bst-tsb.gc.ca/eng/medias-media/communiques/pipeline/2020/p18h0088-20200304.html

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