PIEDMONT NATURAL GAS CO INC — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2013-02-03

Gas transmission and gathering incident in COUNCIL, BLADEN County, NC. Reported cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 25895 NATURAL GAS released, $525,175 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: 20130021.

Operator ID: 15518.

Reported incident date: 2/3/2013 2:50.

Location detail: 2481+17

Cause detail: PREVIOUS DAMAGE DUE TO EXCAVATION ACTIVITY

Cause detail: MISCELLANEOUS ROOT CAUSES

Cause detail: PREVIOUS DAMAGE

Cause detail: AT APPROXIMATELY 2:50 A.M. LOCAL TIME ON SUNDAY FEBURARY 3, 2013, A PIEDMONT NATURAL GAS 12" TRANSMISSION LINE, DENOTED AS LINE 2, RUPTURED. THIS EVENT WAS NEAR THE COMMUNITY OF COUNCIL IN RURAL SOUTHEASTERN NC. PRESSURES BEFORE THE EVENT WERE WITHIN MAOP LIMITS. NO INJURIES OR SIGNIFICANT PROPERTY DAMAGE WAS NOTED FROM THE EVENT. THE FAILURE ANALYSIS PERFORMED BY A THIRD PARTY INVESTIGATOR INDICATES THAT THE RUPTURE "INITIATED AT A GOUGE CONTAINING A RE-ROUNDING CRACK THAT WAS LOCATED ALONG THE TOP OF THE PIPELINE. THE CAUSE OF THE GOUGE IS UNKNOWN. CRACKS PROPAGATED IN A HELICAL PATTERN AROUND THE PIPE AND AWAY FROM THE GOUGE. THE MATERIAL WAS LIKELY OF LOW TOUGHNESS DUE TO THE INHERENT LOW TOUGHNESS OF THE PIPE STEEL AT SERVICE TEMPERATURE AND THE WORK HARDENING EFFECT OF THE GOUGING PROCESS."

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE — PREVIOUS DAMAGE DUE TO EXCAVATION.

PHMSA indexed costs: $606,190 reported total cost, $336,922.159 in 1984 dollars, $749,759.373 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.