TENNESSEE GAS PIPELINE CO (EL PASO) — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2011-09-19

Gas transmission and gathering incident. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 0.25 NATURAL GAS released, $122,500 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: 20110375.

Operator ID: 19160.

Reported incident date: 9/19/2011 7:00.

Cause detail: THREADED CONNECTION/COUPLING FAILURE

Cause detail: WHILE ABANDONING ITS 509A-2900 OFFSHORE PIPELINE, TENNESSEE GAS PIPELINE (TGP) COMPANY'S CONTRACTED DIVERS WERE UNCOVERING A MATTED ("BURIED" WITH SANDBAGS) VALVE ASSEMBLY TO CLOSE A SIDE VALVE AND DISCOVERED A MINOR LEAK COMING FROM THE THREADS ON A 1-INCH NIPPLE AT THE BODY OF A DIFFERENT SIDE VALVE IN THE UNDERWATER ASSEMBLY. THIS FABRICATED ASSEMBLY WAS ABOUT 40 FEET IN LENGTH AND COULD BE ISOLATED SUCH THAT GAS LOSS WAS VERY MINIMAL. REPAIRS WERE MADE BY REPLACING THE COMPONENT WITH A NEW 1-INCH NIPPLE AND VALVE (INTENDED FOR BODY BLEED).

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — THREADED CONNECTION/COUPLING FAILURE.

PHMSA indexed costs: $125,521 reported total cost, $67,327.208 in 1984 dollars, $165,787.999 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.