COLUMBIA GULF TRANSMISSION, LLC — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2013-10-13

Gas transmission and gathering incident in VILLE PLATTE, EVANGELINE County, LA. Reported cause: MATERIAL FAILURE OF PIPE OR WELD. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 3 NATURAL GAS released, $0 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: 20140143.

Operator ID: 2620.

Reported incident date: 10/13/2013 13:30.

Location detail: 22.5

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

Cause detail: LINE 100 WAS SUBJECT TO AN INSTALLATION OF A SECOND VALVE AFTER THE FIRST VALVE WAS DAMAGED DUE TO A FAILED STOPPLE INSTALLATION. THE FAILED STOPPLE INSTALLATION WAS REFERENCED IN THE NRC REPORT NO.: 1062828 REPORTED ON OCTOBER 12, 2013 14:55, WITH AN ODES REPORT NUMBER OF 20130100 - 16173. COLUMBIA GULF TRANSMISSION, LLC, (COLUMBIA) WAS ADVISED BY PHMSA SOUTHWESTERN REGION TO FILE A SECOND INCIDENT REPORT, SEPARATE FROM THE OCTOBER 12, 2013 REPORT TO ADDRESS SEPARATE INSTANCE. ON OCTOBER 13, 2013 FOLLOWING THE OCTOBER 12, 2013 EVENT, A NEW VALVE WAS INSTALLED DUE TO A CRACKED WELD. THE CRACKED WELD RESULTED IN ONLY A SMALL AMOUNT OF GAS RELEASED TO THE ATMOSPHERE (LESS THAN THE INCIDENT REPORTING THRESHOLD OF 3,000 MCF). HOWEVER; THE COST OF REPAIRS EXCEEDED $50,000. THE CRACK WAS FOUND IN A CIRCUMFERENTIAL WELD BETWEEN THE NEW 16" HOT TAP VALVE AND 16" BRANCH PIPING. THE FIRST VALVE, WAS REMOVED AND A NEW VALVE WAS INSTALLED. THE NEW WELD FOR THIS VALVE WAS INSPECTED BY NON-DESTRUCTIVE TESTING TECHNICIANS PASSED THE INSPECTION CODE REQUIREMENT. ON OCTOBER 14, 2013 THE PIPELINE WAS RETURNED TO SERVICE. COLUMBIA'S ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT WORKED WITH THE CONTRACTED WELDING VENDOR TO ENSURE THAT THE PROPER WELDING PROCEDURES WERE FOLLOWED. IN ADDITION, COLUMBIA REVISED THE WELDING PROCEDURE USED IN THIS PROJECT TO AVOID ANY FUTURE RE-OCCURRENCE.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

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

PHMSA indexed costs: $158,544 reported total cost, $97,649.552 in 1984 dollars, $186,962.749 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.