Nearly 100 residents of Somerset County PA evacuated on Tuesday, February 20th after emergency services were notified of a high pressure leak of natural gas near Rockwood.

One resident Jena Shafer, who lives about 3 miles from the leak, said it sounded like a jet engine airplane.

The pipeline is operated by Spectra Energy, known for the tragic pipeline explosion in Salem Township back in April of 2016

From ABC News, Associated Press, April 21, 2016

Anchorage — An investigation has started into a fire that briefly shut down the trans-Alaska pipeline.

KTUU reports (http://is.gd/3chpWi) the vent fire at pump station was extinguished early Thursday morning, and the station is offline. Non-essential personnel were evacuated to the nearby community of Coldfoot.

The 800-mile pipeline was shut down Wednesday afternoon, and resumed flowing just before midnight at a reduced flow rate.

Alyeska Pipeline Co. officials say the pipeline was returning to full flow operations Thursday, and employees are monitoring the system.

The shutdown had no economic impact to the state. Diana Hunt with the Alaska Davison of Oil and Gas says the flow of oil was delayed, not disrupted.

Alyeska also reports there was no environmental damage from the fire, and no injuries have been reported.

April 28, 2016

OKLAHOMA CITY – A man has filed a lawsuit claiming negligence against Oklahoma Natural Gas after he suffered serious burns from a January natural gas explosion that destroyed dozens of homes in northwest Oklahoma City.

The Oklahoman reports that the lawsuit filed by 29-year-old Jonathan Duggan earlier this month alleges that the utility company was negligent for failing to maintain or inspect the area where the explosion occurred. The suit also claims negligence for the utility’s failure to warn residents of the danger, failure to eliminate the dangerous condition, and for creating a hazard.

The utility company cited the cause of the explosion as “poor workmanship” after an internal investigation found a lack of fusion in a weld seam and a 3-inch crack in a polyethylene pipe that led to the blast.

By Tom Lohr, Bloomberg News, April 29, 2016

An explosion and fire on a major Spectra Energy Corp. pipeline that crosses half the U.S. is disrupting natural gas shipments from western Pennsylvania to the Northeast.

Crews shut off the gas feeding the flames, which burst out of Spectra’s Texas Eastern pipeline in Salem Township at about 8:30 a.m., John Poister, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said in an e-mail. The PA-DEP is investigating any effect on nearby gas wells and any environmental damage, Poister said.

While repairs will start as soon as possible, it’s unclear when service will be restored, Spectra said in a notice. The company declared force majeure at midday, sending natural gas futures surging as much as 5.6 percent on the New York Mercantile Exchange on speculation that the outage will limit supplies to the Northeast.

One of the country’s largest pipelines, Texas Eastern runs from the Gulf Coast up through the booming Marcellus and Utica shale regions all the way to New Jersey, where it hooks up with other lines into New York and New England. The Penn-Jersey section had been transporting 1.3 billion cubic feet of gas a day through the Delmont compressor in Westmoreland County, according to Het Shah, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Gas may still be able to move out of the region through an underutilized system known as the Capacity Restoration Project, which runs parallel to the Penn-Jersey system, according to BNEF analyst Joanna Wu. “That whole area is a big web of pipelines, so it will find its way to market, but in the short-term, it’s going to cut some flows,” Shah said.

The explosion created a conflagration that damaged “several” homes near the pipeline, engulfing one of them and injuring a man inside who was transported to a Pittsburgh hospital, Poister said. Residents of the area told media outlets they could feel rumbling as far as 6 miles away. Passing motorists captured images of the fiery scene and emergency crews set up a quarter-mile evacuation zone.

“Our first concern is for the safety of the community, our employees and any others who may be affected,” Phil West, a spokesman for Spectra, wrote in an e-mail. “We have activated our emergency response plan and are cooperating with authorities in our response, and we will provide more information at a later time.”