Enterprise accepts some US Gulf natgas noms on HIOS

NEW YORK Aug 13 (Reuters) - Enterprise Product Partners LP (EPD.N) said Thursday it began accepting some natural gas nominations on its High Island Offshore System in the Gulf of Mexico by bypassing a compressor platform damaged by fire earlier this month.

"After completing preliminary damage assessments, HIOS has determined that effective for gas day Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009, it will be able to accept nominations and resume some level of service from all receipt locations to all delivery points by bypassing the damaged compressor station in block HIA-264," the company said in a website posting.

A fire on Aug. 4 caused significant damage to part of the company's HIA-264 natural gas compressor complex, located off the coast of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico.

The posting said the force majeure on HIOS will continue because compression facilities will be unavailable until further notice.

"With compression facilities remaining unavailable, shippers should expect higher than normal line pressures at receipt locations upstream of HIA-264. These higher system pressures may cause production to be reduced or shut in at certain receipt locations so shippers should monitor scheduled versus actual flow very closely at receipt points and adjust scheduled volumes accordingly."

"Similarly, depending on the capacity available on any day, volumes nominated or flowing under interruptible service agreements which may be physically able to flow may be subject to scheduling reductions or interruption of service."

While the posting said preliminary damage assessments have been completed, it did not mention a projected date when the compression facilities would be back in service.

Company spokesman Rick Rainey said it has not been determined when the facilities would be back, adding, "It depends on when we finish our investigation and evaluation of the damage."

The High Island Offshore System, or HIOS, gathers natural gas from fields in the western Gulf of Mexico to numerous downstream pipelines off the coast of Louisiana.

The whole HIOS system has the capacity to transport 1.8 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas, but Rainey said the system was only moving about 240 million to 250 million cubic feet of gas daily. (Reporting by Joe Silha; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)