TRANSCONTINENTAL GAS PIPE LINE COMPANY — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2017-12-14

Gas transmission and gathering incident. Reported cause: CORROSION FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 53.5 NATURAL GAS released, $50,000 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: 20180012.

Operator ID: 19570.

Reported incident date: 12/14/2017 16:00.

Cause detail: INTERNAL CORROSION

Cause detail: ON 12/14/17/2017 A THIRD PARTY HELICOPTER SPOTTED THE BUBBLES AND REPORTED THEM TO WGP PIPELINE CONTROL. PIPELINE CONTROL NOTIFIED WGP OPERATIONS. OPERATIONS FLEW OUT TO VERIFY COORDINATES. THE BUBBLES WERE IN THE VICINITY OF A WGP 16" PIPELINE. THE WGP SECURITY OPERATIONS CENTER WAS NOTIFIED OF THE POTENTIAL LEAK. DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER PERSONNEL HAD TO TRAVEL BY BOAT TO GET TO THE ISOLATION POINTS. WE MADE THE DECISION TO SHUT IN PRODUCTION TO THE LINE ON 12/14/17. THE 16" SECTION OF PIPELINE WAS ISOLATED ON 12/16/17. THEY THEN STARTED REDUCING THE PRESSURE IN THE SECTION OF 16". THE DIVE BOAT WAS DISPATCHED AND DIVERS CONFIRMED THE LEAK WAS THE WGP 16" PIPELINE. THE SOC WAS NOTIFIED OF A CONFIRMED LEAK AND THEY NOTIFIED THE NRC. ON 12/18/2017 WGP OPERATIONS ACQUIRED THE SECOND 16" PLIDCO CLAMP THAT WAS INSTALLED AND TORQUED.AS OF 12/21/17. 6/6/2018 AS OF THIS DATE, THERE HAS BEEN NO CHANGE TO THE OPERATIONAL STATUS OF THIS PIPELINE. IT REMAINS ISOLATED WITH NO PRESSURE. WE ARE WORKING WITH OUR PRODUCER PARTNERS AS WELL AS THE OTHER REGULATORY AGENCIES FOR APPROVAL TO ABANDON THE LINE. THE FINAL ABANDONMENT WILL TAKE PLACE IN 2020. AT THE REQUEST OF BRIAN PIERZINA, WE HAVE UPDATED THE "FACILITY RESTART" DATE TO 12/21/17 AS THAT WAS THE POINT IN WHICH ACTIVITIES ASSOCIATED WITH THE RELEASE EVENT WERE ESSENTIALLY CONCLUDED. THIS REPORT WILL BE NOW MARKED AS "FINAL".

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: CORROSION — INTERNAL.

PHMSA indexed costs: $136,633 reported total cost, $67,878.054 in 1984 dollars, $164,389.775 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.