TENNESSEE GAS PIPELINE COMPANY — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2013-03-15

Gas transmission and gathering incident. Reported cause: CORROSION FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 100 NATURAL GAS released, $426,159 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: 20130030.

Operator ID: 19160.

Reported incident date: 3/15/2013 17:15.

Cause detail: INTERNAL CORROSION

Cause detail: TENNESSEE GAS PIPELINE (TGP) WAS NOTIFIED BY THE BUREAU OF SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENFORCEMENT (BSEE) THAT BUBBLES AND ABOUT A 1 MILE LONG SHEEN WERE VISIBLE IN THE VACINITY OF TGP'S 24" LINE 523M-3700 ON THE OCS IN EUGENE ISLAND BLOCK 241. TGP INVESTIGATED AND CONFIRMED THE LOCATION OF THE BUBBLES AND SHEEN. THE ONLY PRODUCER FLOWING INTO THE PIPELINE WAS IMMEDIATELY SHUT-IN. DIVERS WERE SENT CLOSE A 30X24 SUBSEA VALVE IN ORDER TO REDUCE THE PIPELINE PRESSURE BEFORE EVALUATING THE LEAK LOCATION BUT WERE DELAYED BY WEATHER FROM DIVING AND COMPLETING THIS TASK UNTIL MARCH 17. AN ADDITIONAL CHECK VALVE WAS TO BE PINNED BEFORE COMMENCING REPAIR OF THE LEAK BUT THE DIVERS HAD TO RETURN TO SHORE ON MARCH 21 DUE TO BAD WEATHER. ON MARCH 27 THE DIVERS RETURNED TO THE LEAK LOCATION AND WERE ABLE TO EXCAVATE THE PIPE, REMOVE THE COATING AND INSTALL A LEAK CLAMP TO COMPLETE THE REPAIR. THE CLAMP INSTALLATION WAS COMPLETED ON MARCH 29 AND THE PIPELINE THEN RETURNED TO SERVICE.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: CORROSION — INTERNAL.

PHMSA indexed costs: $449,520 reported total cost, $239,333.189 in 1984 dollars, $566,054.311 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.