GENESIS OFFSHORE HOLDINGS, LLC — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2018-04-17

Gas transmission and gathering incident in TX. Reported cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 12680 NATURAL GAS released, $443,478 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: 20180054.

Operator ID: 39352.

Reported incident date: 4/17/2018 20:45.

Cause detail: EXCAVATION DAMAGE BY THIRD PARTY

Cause detail: NOTIFICATION ISSUE

Cause detail: NO NOTIFICATION MADE TO THE ONE-CALL CENTER/811

Cause detail: A DREDGING SPUD BARGE OPERATED BY RLB CONTRACTING, INC. WAS PERFORMING UNDERWATER OPERATIONS IN THE MATAGORDA BAY, TX AREA NEAR PORT O'CONNOR ON THE NIGHT OF 4/17/2018. RECORDS SHOW THAT AT THIS POINT, GENESIS WAS NOT NOTIFIED OF THE OPERATION AND A ONECALL NOTIFICATION WAS NOT MADE BY THE CONTRACTOR PRIOR TO OPERATIONS. AT APPROXIMATELY 20:45, THE BARGE DROPPED A SPUD ON THE GENESIS OFFSHORE HOLDINGS, LLC PIPELINE NAMED TOMCAT, A 20" NATURAL GAS GATHERING PIPELINE. THE SPUD CAUSED A 2.5" BY 4" PUNCTURE HOLE ON THE PIPELINE RELEASING THE PRODUCT. THE NATURAL GAS AND CONDENSATE RELEASED IGNITED ABOVE THE WATER SURFACE. THE BARGE PERSONNEL QUICKLY CALLED 811 TO REPORT A HIT PIPELINE AT 20:58. A GENESIS OPERATOR RECEIVED THE 811 NOTICE AND CALLED THE GENESIS OFFSHORE SUPERINTENDENT TO REPORT THE INCIDENT. TGLO, TRRC, NRC, AND PHMSA WERE NOTIFIED. A GENESIS OPERATOR WAS DISPATCHED TO THE DOWNSTREAM VALVE AT MILSP PLANT TO BEGIN THE CONTROLLED BLOWDOWN OF THE PRODUCT HOWEVER BY THE TIME HE ARRIVED AT THE PLANT, THE PRESSURE WAS ALREADY AT APPROXIMATELY 150PSI AND DROPPING. RLB INITIALLY CONTRACTED HORIZON (OSRO) TO BEGIN EMERGENCY RESPONSE EFFORTS. GENESIS ALSO EXECUTED THE RESPONSE PLAN AND ACTIVATED APPROPRIATE RESPONSE CONTRACTORS. USCG ARRIVED AT THE SCENE AND ASSUMED INCIDENT COMMAND OF THE RESPONSE OPERATIONS. THE BARGE CREW WAS SAFELY EVACUATED FROM THE BARGE AND BOOM WAS DEPLOYED TO CONTAIN LIQUIDS. GAS FIRE EXTINGUISHED AT APPROXIMATELY 15:00 ON 4/18/2018. THE TEMPORARY REPAIR ON THE PIPELINE WAS COMPLETED AND THE WORK SPREAD DEPARTED EARLY APRIL 27TH. NOTE: PART D, QUESTION 7D IS THE SUM OF THE TOTAL PRODUCT LOST (NOT RECOVERED) AS REPORTED IN PART A QUESTIONS 12. THIS IS EQUAL TO 3,458 BARRELS OF CONDENSATE PRICED AT $67.50 PER BARREL ($233,415). NOTE: PART E, QUESTION 6: SCADA WAS FULLY FUNCTIONAL AT THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT HOWEVER THE CONTROL ROOM WAS UNABLE TO SEE A PRESSURE DROP BECAUSE THEY WERE SEEING THE PRESSURE DOWNSTREAM OF THE BLOCK VALVE AT THE MILSP PLANT. THE PIPELINE WAS SHUT IN AND NOT FLOWING AT THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT, AS REPORTED IN PART A, QUESTION 15. SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT (6/18/2018) - UPDATE TO PART D. RECEIVED ESTIMATE FROM RLB CONTRACTING FOR ESTIMATED NON-OPERATOR DAMAGES INCURRED (QUESTION 7A). IN ADDITION, UPDATED QUESTIONS 7B AND 7C TO REFLECT MORE ACCURATE ESTIMATES.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE — THIRD PARTY EXCAVATION DAMAGE.

PHMSA indexed costs: $5,835,006 reported total cost, $2,803,165.63 in 1984 dollars, $6,863,271.902 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.