TARGA RESOURCES OPERATING LP — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2012-05-01

Gas transmission and gathering incident in BIG LAKE, REAGAN County, TX. Reported cause: CORROSION FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 26928 NATURAL GAS released, $18,000 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: 20120056.

Operator ID: 32296.

Reported incident date: 5/1/2012 21:00.

Location detail: 506888

Cause detail: EXTERNAL CORROSION

Cause detail: INTEGRITY PRESSURE TESTING IN ACCORDANCE WITH TEXAS TITLE 16, CHAPTER 8, SUBCHAPTER B WAS BEING CONDUCTED ON 05/01/2012. THE PRESSURE TEST ON THE PIPELINE WAS TO BE AT 1152 PSIG FOR 8 HRS. AS THE PIPELINE WAS BEING PRESSURED UP, A RUPTURE OF THE LINE OCCURRED AT APPROXIMATELY 1136 PSIG ON THE PIPELINE. THE CAUSE OF THE RUPTURE WAS DUE TO EXTERNAL CORROSION ON THE PIPELINE. A 30' TO 40' AREA OF THE PIPE HAD LOCALIZED PITTING LOCATED ON THE PIPING THAT WAS BLOWN AND REMOVED FROM THE AREA. SOIL SAMPLES FROM NEAR THE PIPE SHOWED HIGH LEVELS OF CHLORIDES. AN OIL WELL LOCATION WAS NEAR THE PIPE WITH THE REMNANTS OF THE BRINE PIT WITHIN 46' TO 50' OF THE PIPE. WHEN THE PIPELINE RUPTURED PERSONNEL WERE IN THE AREA TO ISOLATE VALVES. IT WAS DETERMINED 26,928 MCF WAS LOST IN THE BLOW OUT. WHEN THE RUPTURE OCCURRED A FIRE WAS STARTED, WHICH THEN STARTED A GRASS FIRE. REGAN COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE AND REAGAN COUNTY VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMNET RESPONDED TO THE FIRE AND INCIDENT.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: CORROSION — EXTERNAL.

PHMSA indexed costs: $91,000 reported total cost, $69,671.557 in 1984 dollars, $98,879.134 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.