Panhandle Mo. gas line break no impact to shippers

NEW YORK, May 21 (Reuters) - Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Co LP said Thursday it experienced a line break upstream of the Centralia compressor station on the 200 line of its natural gas pipeline system in central Missouri, but a spokesman noted the rupture happened in a rural area with no injuries and no effect on customers.

"It has had no impact on customers. We do have other pipelines that have been able to continue supplying service to customers. It occurred in a field so there were no injuries, no buildings or property damage," spokesman John Barnett said.

Barnett said the company might have been performing maintenance on the line so flows would have been reduced, but he did not have actual volumes of gas flowing at the time of the incident.

An investigation into the cause of the line break was underway.

Panhandle Eastern operates a 6,500-mile pipeline system delivering up to 2.8 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas to Midwest and East Coast markets.

Panhandle Eastern is a unit of Panhandle Energy, a Southern Union Co (SUG.N: Quote, Profile, Research). (Reporting by Eileen Moustakis; Editing by John Picinich)