CITIZENS GAS & COKE UTILITY — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2017-04-18

Gas transmission and gathering incident in WORTHINGTON, GREENE COUNTY County, IN. Reported cause: INCORRECT OPERATION. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 41524 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: 20170037.

Operator ID: 2392.

Reported incident date: 4/18/2017 17:30.

Location detail: WELLHEAD

Cause detail: DAMAGE BY OPERATOR OR OPERATOR'S CONTRACTOR NOT RELATED TO EXCAVATION AND NOT DUE TO MOTORIZED VEHICLE/EQUIPMENT DAMAGE

Cause detail: THE EVENING OF APRIL 18, 2017, A CONTRACTOR FOR CITIZENS GAS WAS PERFORMING MAINTENANCE ON A NATURAL GAS WELL THAT IS PART OF CITIZENS' UNDERGROUND STORAGE FACILITIES NEAR WORTHINGTON, INDIANA. AT APPROXIMATELY 5:30 P.M., THE CONTRACTORS FLUID AND GEL PLUG THAT WAS SET TO TEMPORARILY CONTAIN THE WELL PRESSURE FAILED AND GAS BEGAN VENTING FROM THE WELL. - CITIZENS IMMEDIATELY IMPLEMENTED ITS WELL CONTROL CONTINGENCY PLAN AND BEGAN WORKING WITH LOCAL FIRE, POLICE AND OTHER AGENCIES TO TAKE MAKE-SAFE ACTIONS AND TO CONTROL THE WELL AND RESUME NORMAL OPERATIONS AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE. - AS A PRECAUTIONARY MEASURE TO AVOID ANY ACCIDENTAL IGNITION SOURCES, ELEVEN (11) NEARBY HOMES WERE EVACUATED AND ELECTRIC POWER WAS SHUT OFF TO APPROXIMATELY 50 HOMES. ADDITIONALLY, PORTIONS OF STATE ROAD 67 AND LOCAL ROADS NEAR THE WELL SITE WERE CLOSED TEMPORARILY. - BY THE EVENING OF APRIL 19, STEPS WERE TAKEN TO REDUCE THE FLOW FROM THE WELL. A VALVE WAS INSTALLED BRINGING THE WELL UNDER CONTROL AND NORMAL, SAFE OPERATIONS RESUMED. ALL RESIDENTS THAT WERE EVACUATED FROM THEIR HOMES WERE ALLOWED TO RETURN AND THE LOCAL ROADS THAT WERE CLOSED HAD REOPENED TO TRAFFIC. POWER HAS ALSO BEEN RESTORED TO ALL HOMES AFFECTED BY THE INCIDENT. - NO INJURIES OR FIRE OCCURRED AS A RESULT OF THE INCIDENT. NRC REFERENCE NUMBERS 1) 1176036 - INITIAL REPORT 4/18/2017 @ 8:29PM 2) CALL MADE ON 4/19/2017 @ ~6PM TO NOTIFY THAT ISSUE HAD BEEN RESOLVED (NO REFERENCE NUMBER) 3) 1176216 - 48 HOUR FOLLOW-UP 4/20/2017 @ 3:44PM -AFTER ACTION REVIEW HELD WITH EXTERNAL EMERGENCY RESPONDERS AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES (5/19/2017) -ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS REPORT INVESTIGATION COMPLETE (7/27/2017) -DEBRIEFING WITH STATE REGULATORY COMMISSION PIPELINE SAFETY DEPARTMENT (8/31/2017) -WELL REMAINED OUT OF SERVICE FROM APRIL 2017 (POST-INCIDENT) THROUGH MAY 2018 -APPROVED PLAN FROM CONTINUED WORK TO REMOVE LEGACY TUBING FROM WELL (4/10/2018) -REMOVED OLD COIL TUBING; INSTALLED NEW TUBING; SUCCESSFULLY LOGGED THE WELL (MAY 2018) -WELL PLACED BACK IN SERVICE (5/14/2018)

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: INCORRECT OPERATION — DAMAGE BY OPERATOR OR OPERATOR'S CONTRACTOR.

PHMSA indexed costs: $277,733 reported total cost, $204,392.767 in 1984 dollars, $328,684.409 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.