# EL PASO NATURAL GAS CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2013-06-15 **Citation:** PHMSA Report 20130062 **Type / status:** incident / historical **Agency:** Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration **Effective:** 2013-06-15 **Published:** 2013-07-09 Gas transmission and gathering incident in MESITA, CIBOLA County, NM. Reported cause: INCORRECT OPERATION. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 29163 NATURAL GAS released, $0 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 in MESITA, CIBOLA County, NM. Reported cause: INCORRECT OPERATION. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 29163 NATURAL GAS released, $0 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: 20130062. Operator ID: 4280. Reported incident date: 6/15/2013 15:43. Location detail: 300 Cause detail: VALVE LEFT OR PLACED IN WRONG POSITION, BUT NOT RESULTING IN AN OVERPRESSURE Cause detail: AMBITROL COOLANT LEAKING FROM ENGINE COMPONENT ON TO TURBO CHARGER INSULATION RESULTED IN FLASH FIRE (BURNING COOLANT, NOT NATURAL GAS); UNIT WAS RUNNING AT THE TIME; FIRE EYE SAW FLASH FIRE; FULL STATION ESD OCCURRED; 30-INCH DISCHARGE VALVE DID NOT CLOSE THEREFORE ALLOWING NATURAL GAS RELEASE THROUGH VENT SYSTEM; INVESTIGATION FOUND CLOSED POWER GAS ISOLATION VALVE RENDERING 30-INCH DISCHARGE VALVE INOPERABLE; NOT AN EQUIPMENT FAILURE; INVESTIGATION COULD NOT DETERMINE REASON FOR ISOLATION VALVE TO BE CLOSED; FOLLOWING INITIAL INVESTIGATION, ALL BLOCK VALVES, VENT VALVES, AND POWER GAS VALES WERE CONFIRMED TO BE IN CORRECT OPERATING POSITION; PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious. PHMSA standardized cause: INCORRECT OPERATION — INCORRECT VALVE POSITION. PHMSA indexed costs: $89,978 reported total cost, $72,772.115 in 1984 dollars, $89,480.844 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: - Source ID: `phmsa-pipeline-incidents` - SHA-256: `73bdff35bb5f7be68d228a5b7d79128998006858c4d3c99985d650ba33331ea3` - Retrieved: 2026-08-20T03:30:32.010Z - Exported: 2026-08-25T07:47:16.513Z - Document slug: `phmsa-incident-abb80d44d1fa95b6e0d56d18` ### Source metadata ```json { "recordKind": "pipeline_incident", "datasetType": "gas_transmission_gathering", "datasetLabel": "Gas transmission and gathering", "datasetPeriod": "January 2010 to present", "report": { "number": "20130062", "supplementalNumber": "16326", "type": "SUPPLEMENTAL FINAL", "receivedDate": "2013-07-09", "receivedDateRaw": "7/9/2013" }, "operator": { "id": "4280", "name": "EL PASO NATURAL GAS CO" }, "incident": { "date": "2013-06-15", "dateRaw": "6/15/2013 15:43" }, "location": { "city": "MESITA", "county": "CIBOLA", "state": "NM", "postalCode": "87026", "latitude": 34.9926, "longitude": -107.31579, "type": "OPERATOR-CONTROLLED PROPERTY", "details": { "DESIGNATED_NAME": "300" }, "facilityName": "LAGUNA COMPRESSOR STATION" }, "cause": { "category": "INCORRECT OPERATION", "details": { "CAUSE_DETAILS": "VALVE LEFT OR PLACED IN WRONG POSITION, BUT NOT RESULTING IN AN OVERPRESSURE", "NARRATIVE": "AMBITROL COOLANT LEAKING FROM ENGINE COMPONENT ON TO TURBO CHARGER INSULATION RESULTED IN FLASH FIRE (BURNING COOLANT, NOT NATURAL GAS); UNIT WAS RUNNING AT THE TIME; FIRE EYE SAW FLASH FIRE; FULL STATION ESD OCCURRED; 30-INCH DISCHARGE VALVE DID NOT CLOSE THEREFORE ALLOWING NATURAL GAS RELEASE THROUGH VENT SYSTEM; INVESTIGATION FOUND CLOSED POWER GAS ISOLATION VALVE RENDERING 30-INCH DISCHARGE VALVE INOPERABLE; NOT AN EQUIPMENT FAILURE; INVESTIGATION COULD NOT DETERMINE REASON FOR ISOLATION VALVE TO BE CLOSED; FOLLOWING INITIAL INVESTIGATION, ALL BLOCK VALVES, VENT VALVES, AND POWER GAS VALES WERE CONFIRMED TO BE IN CORRECT OPERATING POSITION;" } }, "consequences": { "fatalities": 0, "injuries": 0, "commodity": "NATURAL GAS", "release": "29163", "propertyDamage": 0, "estimatedOperatorCost": 0, "estimatedEmergencyCost": 200, "estimatedEnvironmentalCost": null, "ignition": "NO", "explosion": "NO", "evacuated": 0, "raw": { "FATAL": "0", "INJURE": "0", "UNINTENTIONAL_RELEASE": "29163", "EST_COST_PROP_DAMAGE": "0", "PRPTY": "89978" } }, "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": 1588, "rowSha256": "8c2b2a8a2602b7e97aa524624892a8bdec6880bee4b1c13238834e8f422506e9" }, "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": "INCORRECT OPERATION", "sevenSubcategory": "INCORRECT VALVE POSITION", "eightCategory": "INCORRECT OPERATION", "eightSubcategory": "INCORRECT VALVE POSITION" }, "costs": { "reported": 89978, "in1984Dollars": 72772.11495412637, "currentYearDollars": 89480.8439954569 }, "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": 401, "rowSha256": "b1f88bc18564c882c7daea2308771f247f0f50348bd3ce2ccbb4e5af32db872e" } }, "jurisdiction": "US", "operatorName": "EL PASO NATURAL GAS CO" } ```