SUNOCO PIPELINE L.P. — Hazardous liquid — incident on 2018-08-31

Hazardous liquid incident in CHEROKEE, ALFALFA County, OK. Reported cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 0.5 CRUDE OIL released, $1,000 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: 20180288.

Operator ID: 18718.

Reported incident date: 8/31/2018 14:00.

Location detail: 0.9

Cause detail: EXCAVATION DAMAGE BY OPERATOR'S CONTRACTOR (SECOND PARTY)

Cause detail: EXCAVATION ISSUE

Cause detail: IMPROPER EXCAVATION PRACTICE NOT LISTED ABOVE

Cause detail: THE CHEROKEE TO BOTTLEMAN 6' HDPE PIPELINE WAS BEING EXCAVATED TO FACILITATE REMOVAL OF A LATERAL DEAD LEG. THE PIPELINE WAS SHUT DOWN AND VALVES ON EITHER SIDE OF THE EXCAVATION AREA WERE CLOSED. THE DEAD LEG SECTION HAD BEEN EXCAVATED AND WHILE CONTINUING TO EXCAVATE TO THE TIE IN WITH THE 6" CHEROKEE TO BOTTLEMAN MAINLINE THE EXCAVATOR STRUCK THE MAINLINE CAUSING A PUNCTURE IN THE HDPE PIPE RESULTING IN A 1/2 BARREL RELEASE. THE RELEASE WAS CLEANED UP AND A CLAMP WAS INSTALLED ON THE PIPELINE IMMEDIATELY. AFTER FURTHER INVESTIGATION, IT WAS DISCOVERED THAT THE 6" HDPE MAINLINE PIPE WAS LAID IN A 5 FT WIDE DITCH. THE WIDTH OF THE DITCH ALLOWED THE PIPE TO BEND LATERALLY DURING BACKFILL WHICH CREATED DIFFICULTY IN ACCURATELY LOCATING THE LINE. FUTURE EXCAVATIONS OF AND AROUND THIS PIPELINE WILL REQUIRE ADDITIONAL MEASURES SUCH AS POTHOLING TO PREVENT RECURRENCE. SINCE THE DATE OF THE RELEASE THE LINE HAS REMAINED IN AN IDLED STATE. BUSINESS ANALYSIS CONCLUDED THAT FURTHER OPERATION OF THE LINE IS NOT NECESSARY AND AS SUCH THE LINE IS SCHEDULED TO BE DE-INVENTORIED AND PLACED IN OUT OF SERVICE STATUS IN THE 4TH QUARTER OF 2018. THE LINE WILL REMAIN IDLE UNTIL SUCH TIME.

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE — OPERATOR/CONTRACTOR EXCAVATION DAMAGE.

PHMSA indexed costs: $1,550 reported total cost, $740.418 in 1984 dollars, $1,823.422 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.