TARGA RESOURCES OPERATING LP — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2012-09-07

Gas transmission and gathering incident in ELDORADO, SHLEICHER County, TX. Reported cause: CORROSION FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 6518 NATURAL GAS released, $12,000 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: 20120100.

Operator ID: 32296.

Reported incident date: 9/7/2012 14:29.

Location detail: 05062

Cause detail: EXTERNAL CORROSION

Cause detail: INTEGRITY PRESSURE TESTING IN ACCORDANCE WITH TEXAS TITLE 16, CHAPTER 8, SUBCHAPTER B WS BEING CONDUCTED ON 9/7/12. THE PRESSURE TEST ON THE PIPELINE WAS TO BE AT 1152 FOR 8 HRS. AS THE PIPELINE WAS BEING PRESSURED UP, A RUPTURE OF THE LINE OCCURRED (AT APPROXIMATELY 1,040 PSIG ON THE PIPELINE).THE CAUSE OF THE RUPTURE WAS DUE TO EXTERNAL CORROSION ON THE PIPELINE. WHEN THE PIPELINE RUPTURED, PERSONNEL WERE IN THE AREA TO ISOLATE VALVES. AFTER THE EXPLOSION A FIRE WAS STARTED, WHICH THEN STARTED A GRASS FIRE. THE SCHLEICHER COUNTY VFD AND IRION COUNTY VFD RESPONDED TO THE FIRE ALONG WITH THE IRION COUNTY SHERIFF DEPARTMENT. IT WAS CALCULATED THAT 6,518 MCF WAS LOST IN THE BLOW-OUT.

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: CORROSION — EXTERNAL.

PHMSA indexed costs: $42,900 reported total cost, $29,688.518 in 1984 dollars, $49,395.8 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.