WBI ENERGY TRANSMISSION, INC. — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2014-12-30

Gas transmission and gathering incident in Not Within a Municipality, GOLDEN VALLEY County, ND. Reported cause: NATURAL FORCE DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 0 released, $300 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: 20150011.

Operator ID: 22655.

Reported incident date: 12/30/2014 6:21.

Location detail: 0+00

Cause detail: TEMPERATURE

Cause detail: ON 12/30/14 THE REGULATORS SUPPLYING GAS TO THE GOLVA-BEACH LATERAL FROZE OFF CAUSING SERVICE TO BE LOST TO THE TOWNS OF SENTINEL BUTTE, ND, BEACH, ND, AND WIBAUX, MT. WBI'S GAS CONTROL RECEIVED A CALL FROM LDC PERSONNEL NOTIFYING WBI THAT THE LDC HAD RECEIVED A LOW OUTLET PRESSURE ALARM AT THE BEACH TBS. AT THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT, WBI DID NOT HAVE ANY SCADA POINTS ON THE GOLVA-BEACH LATERAL. WBI RELIES ON LDC ALARMING FOR THIS LATERAL SYSTEM. WBI PERSONNEL WERE DISPATCHED TO THE REGULATOR STATION WHICH IS APPROXIMATELY 2 MILES SOUTH OF GOLVA, ND. WHEN WBI PERSONNEL ARRIVED AT THE REGULATOR STATION, THE OUTLET OF THE REGULATOR STATION SUPPLYING GAS TO THE GOLVA-BEACH LATERAL WAS APPROXIMATELY 20 PSI. WBI PERSONNEL BYPASSED THE REGULATOR STATION AND WERE ABLE TO MAINTAIN SERVICE TO GOLVA, ND BUT LOST SERVICE TO SENTINEL BUTTE, ND, BEACH , ND, AND WIBAUX, MT. THE REGULATOR STATION WAS PUT INTO SERVICE IN 2013. NO PROBLEMS WERE ENCOUNTERED DURING THE WINTER OF 2013, BUT THE BUILDING HEATER WAS MOVED TO A NEW LOCATION WITHIN THE BUILDING IN 2014. MOVING THE HEATER MAY HAVE CREATED CONDITIONS THAT MADE THE REGULATORS MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO FREEZING OFF, EVEN THOUGH PIPELINE QUALITY GAS WAS FLOWING THROUGH THE STATION. SINCE THE INCIDENT, WBI HAS INSTALLED A PRESSURE TRANSDUCER AT THE REGULATOR STATION WHICH GIVES THE ABILITY TO MONITOR PRESSURE ON THE GOLVA-BEACH LATERAL. IN ADDITION, WBI ALSO INSTALLED REGULATOR PILOT HEATERS AND A SECONDARY HEATER WITHIN THE REGULATOR STATION BUILDING.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: NATURAL FORCE DAMAGE — TEMPERATURE.

PHMSA indexed costs: $185,700 reported total cost, $94,315.11 in 1984 dollars, $231,863.331 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.