COLUMBIA GULF TRANSMISSION, LLC — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2016-01-20

Gas transmission and gathering incident in GRAND CHENIER, CAMERON PARRISH County, LA. Reported cause: MATERIAL FAILURE OF PIPE OR WELD. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 355 NATURAL GAS released, $282,082 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: 20160015.

Operator ID: 2620.

Reported incident date: 1/20/2016 13:50.

Location detail: STATION 1+50

Cause detail: DESIGN-, CONSTRUCTION-, INSTALLATION-, OR FABRICATION-RELATED

Cause detail: ON JANUARY 20, 2016, COLUMBIA GULF TRANSMISSION, LLC (COLUMBIA) OPERATIONS PERSONNEL WERE PERFORMING ROUTINE PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE TO A COLUMBIA PIPELINE FACILITY. UPON COMPLETING THE TASK AND DEPARTING THE AREA VIA BOAT, IT WAS NOTED THAT A FEW BUBBLES WERE EMANATING FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE MARSHLAND. NOTING THAT COLUMBIA HAS A PIPELINE FACILITY NEARBY, COLUMBIA PERSONNEL STOPPED AND STARTED INVESTIGATING. GAS SAMPLES WERE COLLECTED FROM THE IDENTIFIED BUBBLES LOCATION AND FROM THE CLOSEST MEASURING STATION. THE TWO SAMPLES WERE SENT TO THE LABORATORY FOR ANALYSIS TO DETERMINE IF THE DISCOVERED RELEASE WAS FROM A COLUMBIA PIPELINE OR OTHER OPERATORS IN THE AREA. MEANWHILE, COLUMBIA OPERATIONS PERSONNEL WERE DISPATCHED TO THE CLOSEST CRITICAL VALVES TO REDUCE THE PRESSURE FROM THE VALVES' OPERATING VALUE OF 800 PSIG DOWN TO APPROXIMATELY 200 PSIG. AFTER THE RESULTS WERE RECEIVED FROM THE LABORATORY, IT WAS CONFIRMED THAT THE VISIBLE BUBBLES WERE EMANATING FROM A COLUMBIA PIPELINE. ACCORDINGLY, A CONTRACTOR WAS ASSIGNED TO EXCAVATE AND COMPLETE THE NECESSARY REPAIR WHICH WAS IDENTIFIED TO BE FROM A PINHOLE LEAK IN A GIRTH WELD. A LEAK CLAMP WAS INSTALLED AND THE PIPELINE OPERATING PRESSURE WAS RAISED TO ITS NORMAL OPERATING PRESSURE ON FEBRUARY 15, 2016. KEY LESSONS LEARNED FROM THIS INCIDENT WERE THAT MAINTENANCE PIGGING ARE RECOMMENDED TO BE PERFORMED ON MORE ROUTINE SCHEDULED BASIS TO REMOVE TRAPPED LIQUIDS DUE TO LOW FLOW IN PIPELINE. ALSO TO PERFORM MAINTENANCE BATCH TREATMENT ON MORE ROUTINE SCHEDULED BASIS DUE TO LIQUID AND LOW FLOW CONDITIONS.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: MATERIAL FAILURE OF PIPE OR WELD — CONSTRUCTION, INSTALLATION OR FABRICATION-RELATED.

PHMSA indexed costs: $284,601 reported total cost, $143,030.14 in 1984 dollars, $348,927.419 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.