# SOUTHERN NATURAL GAS CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2012-01-23

**Citation:** PHMSA Report 20120017  
**Type / status:** incident / historical  
**Agency:** Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration  
**Effective:** 2012-01-23  
**Published:** 2012-02-20

Gas transmission and gathering incident. Reported cause: CORROSION FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 1 NATURAL GAS released, $330,000 reported property damage. Operator-reported incident data submitted to PHMSA, generally within 30 days. Records may be supplemented or corrected and do not represent final agency causal findings. PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

## Document text

Gas transmission and gathering incident. Reported cause: CORROSION FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 1 NATURAL GAS released, $330,000 reported property damage. Operator-reported incident data submitted to PHMSA, generally within 30 days. Records may be supplemented or corrected and do not represent final agency causal findings.

Report number: 20120017.

Operator ID: 18516.

Reported incident date: 1/23/2012 13:40.

Cause detail: EXTERNAL CORROSION

Cause detail: LOCAL PRODUCTION PLATFORM OPERATIONS PERSONNEL NOTIFIED SOUTHERN NATURAL GAS (SNG) COMPANY OF A POSSIBLE LEAK ON ITS 12" RISER PIPE ON THE EPL WEST DELTA BLOCK 29 PLATFORM. THE REPORT DESCRIBED THE RELEASE AS A MINOR SPRAY AT OR NEAR THE WATER LEVEL. UPON INVESTIGATION, SNG PERSONNEL DETERMINED THAT THIS WAS A RELEASE OF NATURAL GAS CAUSED BY EXTERNAL CORROSION. THE PIPELINE WAS REPAIRED BY INSTALLATION OF NEW PIPE. THE PIPELINE WAS RETURNED TO SERVICE MARCH 5, 2012.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: CORROSION — EXTERNAL.

PHMSA indexed costs: $334,375 reported total cost, $176,230.961 in 1984 dollars, $433,615.914 in current-year dollars.

PHMSA trend flags, standardized causes, and indexed costs are analytical fields added to operator-reported incident data. They do not represent final agency causal findings.

## Provenance

- Official: Yes
- Source: <https://data.transportation.gov/api/views/27nc-rsge/files/2b05c2d8-d14a-4c56-ac1c-7d23a4bc31c8?download=true&filename=Gas%20Transmission%20%26%20Gathering%20Incident%20Data%20-%20January%202010%20to%20present.zip>
- Source ID: `phmsa-pipeline-incidents`
- SHA-256: `e7273a5f48bdec83f613e5b228399f6e5d74518deabaa2eed896e11c9faab59a`
- Retrieved: 2026-08-20T03:30:32.010Z
- Exported: 2026-08-27T02:11:38.359Z
- Document slug: `phmsa-incident-320b34f39e36c4fc09d0ec2a`

### Source metadata

```json
{
  "recordKind": "pipeline_incident",
  "datasetType": "gas_transmission_gathering",
  "datasetLabel": "Gas transmission and gathering",
  "datasetPeriod": "January 2010 to present",
  "report": {
    "number": "20120017",
    "supplementalNumber": "15645",
    "type": "SUPPLEMENTAL FINAL",
    "receivedDate": "2012-02-20",
    "receivedDateRaw": "2/20/2012"
  },
  "operator": {
    "id": "18516",
    "name": "SOUTHERN NATURAL GAS CO"
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2012-01-23",
    "dateRaw": "1/23/2012 13:40"
  },
  "location": {
    "city": null,
    "county": null,
    "state": null,
    "postalCode": null,
    "latitude": 29.142683,
    "longitude": -89.610586,
    "type": "OFFSHORE",
    "details": {},
    "facilityName": null
  },
  "cause": {
    "category": "CORROSION FAILURE",
    "details": {
      "CAUSE_DETAILS": "EXTERNAL CORROSION",
      "NARRATIVE": "LOCAL PRODUCTION PLATFORM OPERATIONS PERSONNEL NOTIFIED SOUTHERN NATURAL GAS (SNG) COMPANY OF A POSSIBLE LEAK ON ITS 12\" RISER PIPE ON THE EPL WEST DELTA BLOCK 29 PLATFORM. THE REPORT DESCRIBED THE RELEASE AS A MINOR SPRAY AT OR NEAR THE WATER LEVEL. UPON INVESTIGATION, SNG PERSONNEL DETERMINED THAT THIS WAS A RELEASE OF NATURAL GAS CAUSED BY EXTERNAL CORROSION. THE PIPELINE WAS REPAIRED BY INSTALLATION OF NEW PIPE. THE PIPELINE WAS RETURNED TO SERVICE MARCH 5, 2012."
    }
  },
  "consequences": {
    "fatalities": 0,
    "injuries": 0,
    "commodity": "NATURAL GAS",
    "release": "1",
    "propertyDamage": 330000,
    "estimatedOperatorCost": 0,
    "estimatedEmergencyCost": 4000,
    "estimatedEnvironmentalCost": null,
    "ignition": "NO",
    "explosion": "NO",
    "evacuated": 0,
    "raw": {
      "FATAL": "0",
      "INJURE": "0",
      "UNINTENTIONAL_RELEASE": "1",
      "EST_COST_PROP_DAMAGE": "330000",
      "PRPTY": "334375"
    }
  },
  "provenance": {
    "viewId": "27nc-rsge",
    "viewUrl": "https://data.transportation.gov/api/views/27nc-rsge",
    "assetId": "2b05c2d8-d14a-4c56-ac1c-7d23a4bc31c8",
    "archiveFilename": "Gas Transmission & Gathering Incident Data - January 2010 to present.zip",
    "archiveSha256": "fe0b136ca4b00ac987a8bc2e195098accf910d97512c5fc3b59e62d9da5f674e",
    "memberPath": "incident_gas_transmission_gathering_jan2010_present.txt",
    "memberSha256": "b435f2a25718cf54c54e00294e6788c4f9c6860e02fb86355e75d294c243c4dd",
    "rowNumber": 1745,
    "rowSha256": "355fa09f1e8096ac2841bef255b7e8bd50dbfa8ae02610934d31501a53831886"
  },
  "caveat": "Operator-reported incident data submitted to PHMSA, generally within 30 days. Records may be supplemented or corrected and do not represent final agency causal findings.",
  "operatorReported": true,
  "finalAgencyFinding": false,
  "flaggedAnalysis": {
    "dataAsOf": "2026-07-31",
    "flags": {
      "fireFirst": null,
      "significant": true,
      "serious": false
    },
    "standardizedCause": {
      "sevenCategory": "CORROSION",
      "sevenSubcategory": "EXTERNAL",
      "eightCategory": "CORROSION",
      "eightSubcategory": "EXTERNAL"
    },
    "costs": {
      "reported": 334375,
      "in1984Dollars": 176230.96067653276,
      "currentYearDollars": 433615.9137420719
    },
    "caveat": "PHMSA trend flags, standardized causes, and indexed costs are analytical fields added to operator-reported incident data. They do not represent final agency causal findings.",
    "provenance": {
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/data_statistics/pipeline/PHMSA_Pipeline_Safety_Flagged_Incidents.zip",
      "landingPageUrl": "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/data-and-statistics/pipeline/pipeline-incident-flagged-files",
      "catalogUrl": "https://data.transportation.gov/Pipelines-and-Hazmat/Pipeline-Incident-Flagged-Files/qdme-9bbm",
      "retrievalMode": "official_live",
      "archivedAt": null,
      "archiveSha256": "317e6a3e16d60b9b677efe391dc40258b5dd7ead83fb8bea74cb553cedfbbdec",
      "workbook": "gtggungs2010toPresent.xlsx",
      "sheet": "gtggungs2010toPresent",
      "rowNumber": 244,
      "rowSha256": "b99d0f5b541afa89a9dc75cd7639317f5a431532478c201d8c757fe9bef34581"
    }
  },
  "jurisdiction": "US",
  "operatorName": "SOUTHERN NATURAL GAS CO"
}
```