Enbridge says pipeline in flood-hit Canada province transporting natural gas above year-ago level

(Reuters) -Enbridge Inc said Monday it was now transporting more natural gas on its Westcoast natural gas pipeline than at this time in 2020, less than a week after it shut a segment of the pipeline system due to heavy flooding in the British Columbia province.

The pipeline was transporting 1.63 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) of natural gas as of Monday, above the 100% of total contracted volume transported last year at this time, Enbridge said in a statement.

British Columbia declared a state of emergency after a phenomenon known as an "atmospheric river" brought a month's worth of rain in two days, paralyzing parts of the province and causing shortages of food and fuel.

The flooding has killed at least four people and could become one of Canada's worst natural disasters.

Enbridge said it was able to maintain natural gas service and quickly increase capacity on its Westcoast pipeline system after the extreme weather event.

It had shut down a segment of a 30-inch pipeline, one of the two pipelines that make up its Westcoast natural gas pipeline in British Columbia, as a precautionary measure on Tuesday. The other pipeline had remained operational.

Customers of natural gas, which is used to heat homes, among other things, were facing reduced supplies after Enbridge shut the pipeline segment, lowering flows to 1.4 bcf/d from up to 1.8 bcf/day normally.

The Trans Mountain oil pipeline, which shut down entirely after flooding last Sunday, expects to resume the operations in some capacity by the end of this week. It ships 300,000 barrel per day of crude and refined products from Alberta to Burnaby, near Vancouver.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru, Nia Williams in Calgary and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Bernadette Baum)