TRANSCONTINENTAL GAS PIPE LINE COMPANY — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2013-01-08

Gas transmission and gathering incident in GREENSBURG, SAINT HELENA County, LA. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 145 NATURAL GAS released, $174,620 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: 20130008.

Operator ID: 19570.

Reported incident date: 1/8/2013 10:20.

Location detail: 626.617

Cause detail: NON-THREADED CONNECTION FAILURE

Cause detail: PRIMARY CAUSE OF LEAK WAS LOSS OF SUPPORT ON FLANGE RESULTING IN A CRACKED GASKET.TWO CONCRETE SUPPORTS IMMEDIATELY UPSTREAM AND DOWNSTREAM (DISTANCE FROM CENTER OF SUPPORT TO CENTER OF FLANGE APPROXIMATELY 4'-6") OF THE FLANGE WAS INSPECTED AFTER THE LEAK WAS IDENTIFIED AND BOTH WERE FOUND IN GOOD CONDITION WITH NO SOIL SETTLEMENT. HOWEVER, SOIL SETTLEMENT DID OCCUR IN AN AREA 50' TO 60' DOWNSTREAM OF THE FLANGE SET WHICH CONTRIBUTED TO THE FLANGE GASKET CRACK. THE FLANGE GASKET WAS REPLACED AND ONE ADDITIONAL CONCRETE PIPE SUPPORT WAS INSTALLED 50' DOWNSTREAM OF FLANGE TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL SUPPORT. PLEASE SEE ATTACHED DOCUMENT FOR SEQUENCE OF LEAK INVESTIGATION EVENTS.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — NON-THREADED CONNECTION FAILURE.

PHMSA indexed costs: $365,571 reported total cost, $232,459.189 in 1984 dollars, $424,106.399 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.