Alliance Pipeline today announced it has restarted its mainline pipeline system and has safely resumed commercial operations and service for its customers.
Flaring operations at Alliance’s block valve near Arcola and the Alameda compressor station in southeastern Saskatchewan have concluded. Alliance began receiving operational linepack from shippers on Wednesday, August 12, 2015, enabling the company to begin a controlled restart of the mainline pipeline system. The Force Majeure was lifted earlier today.
“Alliance is pleased to be safely resuming operational service for our customers,” said Daniel Sutherland, Vice President, Commercial Operations. “We appreciate the cooperation and patience of local residents, officials and communities and our customers as we safely reduced the amount of hydrogen sulphide (H2S) in the pipeline to a safe level through our flaring operations.”
Alliance shut down its mainline pipeline system on August 7, 2015 following the detection of H2S that entered its system as a result of complications experienced by an upstream operator. The company established an information website, www.aplshutdown.com, to keep interested parties informed.
About the Alliance Pipeline system:
The Alliance Pipeline system consists of an approximately 3,719-kilometer (2,311-mile) integrated Canadian and U.S. natural gas transmission pipeline system, delivering rich natural gas from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin and the Williston Basin to the Chicago market hub. The United States portion of the system consists of approximately 1,577 kilometers (980 miles) of infrastructure including the 128-kilometer (80-mile) Tioga Lateral in North Dakota. The Alliance system delivers, on average, about 45.3 million standard cubic metres (or 1.6 billion standard cubic feet) of natural gas per day. More information about the company is available at www.alliancepipeline.com.
Alliance Pipeline Limited Partnership (“Alliance Canada”) owns the Canadian portion of the Alliance Pipeline system. Alliance Pipeline L.P. (“Alliance U.S.A.”) owns the U.S. portion of the Alliance Pipeline system. Both Alliance Canada and Alliance U.S.A. are owned 50 percent each by affiliates of Enbridge Income Fund Holdings Inc. (TSX:ENF) and Veresen Inc. (TSX:VSN).
