PVR MARCELLUS GAS GATHERING, LLC — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2013-05-05

Gas transmission and gathering incident in CUMMINGS TWP, LYCOMING County, PA. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 26350 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: 20130045.

Operator ID: 32668.

Reported incident date: 5/5/2013 10:00.

Location detail: OGONTZ EAST

Cause detail: MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT

Cause detail: AT APPROXIMATELY 10:00 AM ON MAY 5, 2013, PVR DISCOVERED A PRESSURE RELIEF VALVE RELIEVING NATURAL GAS INTO THE ATMOSPHERE. PVR PERSONNEL RESPONDED BY ISOLATING THE VALVE AND MAKING THE APPROPRIATE INTERNAL NOTIFICATIONS. PVR'S ENGINEERING MANAGER CALCULATED THE RELEASE VOLUME AT APPROXIMATELY 26.53 MMCF. AT NO TIME WAS THE PUBLIC, THE ENVIRONMENT, OR PVR EMPLOYEES IN ANY DANGER AS THE NATURAL GAS BEING RELEASED QUICKLY DISSIPATED INTO THE ATMOSPHERE. PVR NOTIFIED THE NRC (PETTY OFFICER HARDY ' CASE # 1046086) AT 11:47 AM AND PROVIDED AN UPDATED VOLUME AT 5:22 PM (PETTY OFFICER LAYMAN). A REVIEW OF THE OPERATIONAL DATA CONFIRMED THAT THE RELIEF VALVE ACTIVATED BEFORE REACHING ITS SET POINT. THE AFFECTED VALVE WAS REMOVED AND A THIRD PARTY FAILURE INVESTIGATION COMPLETED.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

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

PHMSA indexed costs: $109,402 reported total cost, $88,552.848 in 1984 dollars, $108,729.447 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.