Cause of Audrain County Natural Gas Explosion Released

A stress crack in the pipeline is the cause of the massive natural gas explosion in Audrain County last month.

The explosion happened north of Mexico on March 3rd.

A report was filed by Energy Transfer Partners the owner of the Panhandle Eastern Pipeline with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

The report was released on April 2nd.

According to the investigation no evidence of human error or control room malfunctions was found.

According to the Mexico Ledger about 1.14 million dollars of property damage happened within the 621 foot potential impact radius.

Highway 15 was cooked by the fire.

A house that was under construction was destroyed.

Since the explosion a series of hydro-tests was conducted on a 15 mile stretch of the pipeline.

After four failed tests, a successful test was conducted last week on April 8th.