Enterprise sticks to Independence Hub repair sked

NEW YORK, April 23 (Reuters) - Enterprise Product Partners LP (EPD.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said Wednesday its huge Independence Hub natural gas production platform in the Gulf of Mexico would likely return to service on schedule within the next two weeks once repairs to a pipeline leak are completed.

Enterprise, the majority owner of the Independence Hub project, dismissed rumors in the energy market that the platform could be back in operation as soon as Friday or as late as another month and said it was sticking to its initial estimate made April 9 that the platform would be shut for one to four weeks.

"There's nothing new to report on Independence. Nothing has changed on the 'up to the four week time frame' to bring it back into service," Enterprise spokesman Rick Rainey said.

The deepwater platform has a full production capacity of about 1 billion cubic feet per day, or more than 10 percent of U.S. offshore gas production in the Gulf. It had been producing an average of about 900 million cubic feet per day prior to the incident.

Initial investigations indicated the leak on the Independence Trail pipeline originated from a stainless steel o-ring gasket located on the flex joint in approximately 85 feet (26 meters) of water. The flex joint assembly, which connects the pipeline to the platform, allows the pipeline to withstand movements caused by the platform as it moves in the ocean, Enterprise said previously.

The Independence outage has underpinned natural gas prices, stoking fears about building up storage again for next winter and helping drive U.S. futures to their highest level in more than two years over the past two weeks.

Front month gas futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange were trading in the $10.80 per mmBtu area late Wednesday, their highest level since early January 2006, according to Reuters data.

First production from the Independence platform, which sits in 8,000 feet (2,440 meters) of water about 123 miles (198 km) southeast of Biloxi, Mississippi, began in late July 2007.

It is the deepest production platform ever installed in the Gulf and the largest offshore natural gas processing facility, according to Enterprise and its operator Anadarko Petroleum Corp (APC.N: Quote, Profile, Research).