COLUMBIA GULF TRANSMISSION, LLC — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2015-07-26

Gas transmission and gathering incident in LAKE ARTHUR, JEFFERSON DAVIS PARRISH County, LA. Reported cause: OTHER OUTSIDE FORCE DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 1613 NATURAL GAS released, $1,100,000 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: 20150105.

Operator ID: 2620.

Reported incident date: 7/26/2015 17:15.

Location detail: MS-704

Cause detail: NEARBY INDUSTRIAL, MAN-MADE, OR OTHER FIRE/EXPLOSION AS PRIMARY CAUSE OF INCIDENT

Cause detail: ON SUNDAY, JULY 26, 2015, COLUMBIA GULF TRANSMISSION, LLC (COLUMBIA) MEASUREMENT FACILITY AT MS-704 JOB LAKE ARTHUR WAS SUBJECT TO A FIRE FROM AN ADJACENT LIQUID HYDROCARBON STORAGE TANK BATTERY OWNED BY A LOCAL PRODUCER. THE FIRE WAS CAUSED BY A LIGHTNING STRIKE ON THE PRODUCER'S TANK BATTERY, LOCATED ADJACENT TO COLUMBIA'S MEASUREMENT FACILITY. DURING THE INCIDENT, A COLUMBIA RELIEF VALVE (RV) MALFUNCTIONED DUE TO EXPOSURE TO EXTREME HEAT AND INADVERTENTLY RELEASED NATURAL GAS AND THE GAS EXHAUST SUBSEQUENTLY CAUGHT FIRE. THE COLUMBIA MEASUREMENT FACILITY WAS ISOLATED AND BLOWN DOWN TO ATMOSPHERE. COLUMBIA'S ABOVE GROUND FACILITY AT THE METER SITE WAS EXPOSED TO EXTREME HEAT AND IS NO LONGER SERVICEABLE. THE METER STATION AND ASSOCIATED PIPELINE REMAIN BLOWN DOWN AND NOT IN SERVICE AND HAS ADDITIONALLY BEEN DISCONNECTED FROM THE PRODUCERS FLOW LINE SINCE THE DAY OF THE EVENT. A RETURN TO SERVICE PLAN WILL BE IMPLEMENTED IF COLUMBIA ELECTS TO RETURN THE ASSET BACK INTO SERVICE IN THE FUTURE.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: OTHER OUTSIDE FORCE DAMAGE — FIRE/EXPLOSION AS PRIMARY CAUSE.

PHMSA indexed costs: $1,177,420 reported total cost, $592,553.543 in 1984 dollars, $1,454,216.177 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.