GULF SOUTH PIPELINE COMPANY, LP — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2011-02-14

Gas transmission and gathering incident in CARTHAGE, PANOLA County, TX. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 14400 NATURAL GAS released, $30,000,000 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: 20110029.

Operator ID: 31728.

Reported incident date: 2/14/2011 21:40.

Location detail: 00.00

Cause detail: MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT

Cause detail: SUMMARY OF OPERATIONS JUST PRIOR TO INCIDENT ON 02-14-2011. A) THREE TURBINES WERE RUNNING WITH A SUCTION PRESSURE OF 688 PSI AND A DISCHARGE PRESSURE OF 1137 PSI. B) AT 09:11:24 PM, GAS CONTROL PUT A STOP IN T7. C) AT 09:25:03 PM, ESD WAS ACTIVATED BY FIRE DETECTORS. THE INITIAL FIRE WAS A LUBE OIL FIRE. SUBSEQUENTLY AFTER AN ELBOW RUPTURED THE RELEASED GAS IGNITED AND BURNED UNTIL GAS FLOW WAS STOPPED. THE ROOT CAUSE OF THE INCIDENT WAS DETERMENED TO BE THE FAILURE OF A CHECK VALVE IN THE TURBINE UNIT DISCHARGE LINE. 1) CHECK VAVLE ON TURBINE UNIT T7 DISCHARGE LINE WAS DAMAGED. CHECK VALVE INTERNALS SEPERATED WHEN CENTER BOLT FAILED. FAILURE CAUSE WAS DETERMINED TO BE OVERTORQUING OF CENTER BOLT BY MANUFUCTURE DURING VALVE ASSEMBLY. 2) DICCHARGE VALVE ON UNIT T7 DID NOT FULLY CLOSE DURING THE UNIT SHUT DOWN BECAUSE PARTS OF THE CHECK VALVE INTERNALS WAS STUCK IN THE VAVLE. 3) 24" ELBOW LOCATED IN THE BASEMENT ON THE SUCTION LINE OF UNIT T7 COMPRESSOR, RUPTURED FROM A MANUFACTURING DEFECT WHICH WAS WEAKENED BY THE HEAT FROM THE LUBE OIL FIRE ALOWING GAS TO BE RELEASED INTO THE COMPRESSOR BUILDING AND IGNITE. THE DAMAGED FACILITIES HAVE BEEN REPAIRED AND RETURNED TO SERVICE ON 07-16-2011. UPDATED PART E.5F AS REQUESTED BY PHMSA.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT.

PHMSA indexed costs: $30,065,800 reported total cost, $16,136,631.307 in 1984 dollars, $39,683,416.168 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.