TEXACO PIPELINES, LLC — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2003-04-15

Gas transmission and gathering incident in BELLE CHASSE, PLAQUEMINES County, LA. Reported cause: 20. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, $56,715 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: 20030046.

Operator ID: 31556.

Reported incident date: 4/15/2003.

Cause detail: MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT

Cause detail: THE INCIDENT OCCURRED AT A METER STATION. THE METER STATION RECEIVED A SLUG OF NATURAL GAS CONDENSATE. THE CONDENSATE CARRIED OVER OUT OF THE UPSTREAM SEPERATOR INTO THE STATION PIPING AND INTO THE RELIEF VALVE PILOT CAUSING THE RELIEF VALVE TO OPEN PREMATURELY AT 232PSIG WHICH IS FAR BELOW THE STATION MAOP. WHEN THE RELIEF VALVE ACTIVATED, ATOMIZED CONDENSATE WAS EXPELLED TO THE ATMOSPHERE (LESS THAN ONE BARREL) AND FELL ON NEARBY 3RD PARTY EQUIPMENT. THE GAS LOSS AND THE CLEAN-UP COST EXCEEDED $50,000.

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

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

PHMSA indexed costs: $56,715 reported total cost, $36,985.582 in 1984 dollars, $72,619.132 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.