SOUTHERN NATURAL GAS CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2014-07-23

Gas transmission and gathering incident in MILLEDGEVILLE, BALDWIN County, GA. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 0.2 NATURAL GAS released, $10,000 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: 20140086.

Operator ID: 18516.

Reported incident date: 7/23/2014 12:40.

Cause detail: DEFECTIVE OR LOOSE TUBING OR FITTING

Cause detail: THE UPPER SECTION OF A RUN SWITCHING VALVE, THE ACTUATOR, CAUGHT FIRE AT SOUTHERN NATURAL GAS COMPANY'S DUBLIN #1 METER STATION ON JULY 23, 2014. THE FLAME REACHED A HEIGHT OF ABOUT FOUR FEET BUT NEVER SPREAD TO CAUSE DAMAGE ANYWHERE OTHER THAN INSIDE THE METER STATION FENCE. AS A PRECAUTION, THE HIGHWAY (HIGHWAY 441) NEAR THE METER STATION WAS CLOSED UNTIL THE FIRE WAS EXTINGUISHED. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT DIELECTRIC INSULATION IN A TUBING UNION BROKE DOWN OVER TIME RESULTING IN AN ELECTRICAL ARC THAT IGNITED RESIDUAL NATURAL GAS PRESENT IN TUBING FITTINGS AND THE VALVE ACTUATOR. THE AREA OF THE FIRE WAS ISOLATED TO CUT OFF FUEL AND THE FIRE EXTINGUISHED. REPAIRS WERE MADE TO ALL DAMAGED COMPONENTS AND THE METER STATION WAS PLACED BACK INTO SERVICE JULY 24, 2014.

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — DEFECTIVE OR LOOSE TUBING/FITTING.

PHMSA indexed costs: $11,550 reported total cost, $5,869.897 in 1984 dollars, $14,413.038 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.