Enbridge's accident-prone 30 inch diameter Texas Eastern Transmission Gas Pipeline, running 14,218-km from Texas and the Gulf Coast to the densely populated northeast of the United States, exploded on a hillside in eastern Kentucky.  Enbridge said that it has shut-in a section of the pipeline and secured the area.  No injuries were reported.

The rupture follows a similar event with the pipeline some eight months ago in Kentucky, though this explosion tragically killed one person and injured five others. The resulting flames shot up 300 feet into the air and set fire to five houses.  Altogether the Kentucky Courier Journal reports that this blast is one of 29 "significant incidents" with the Texas Eastern Transmission pipeline since 2011, and it occurred just upstream from the Owingsville Compressor, the location of  last year's explosion. 

The incident has reportedly impacted more than 1 billion cubic feet of daily north-to-south capacity on the system, sending natural gas futures higher after gaining Monday on falling production.