EL PASO NATURAL GAS CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2015-06-10

Gas transmission and gathering incident in Not Within a Municipality, GRAY County, TX. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 3648 NATURAL GAS released, $800 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: 20150089.

Operator ID: 4280.

Reported incident date: 6/10/2015 12:15.

Location detail: MILEPOST 68

Cause detail: MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT

Cause detail: EPNG; LINE 3044; MILEPOST 68; PIPELINE 4X6 RELIEF VALVE PREMATURELY OPERATED; 12:15 (MOUNTAIN) TO 12:38 (MOUNTAIN); NEARBY RESIDENT CONTACTED EPNG STAFF; EPNG TECHNICIANS WERE IN THE AREA AND WERE DISPATCHED TO THE RELIEF VALVE SITE; EPNG TECHNICIANS CLOSED THE BLOCK VALVE BENEATH THE RELIEF VALVE HALTING THE RELEASE OF NATURAL GAS AT 12:38 (MOUNTAIN); SCADA DATA SHOWED 845 PSIG OPERATING PRESSURE WITH PRESSURE DECREASE TO 833 PSIG DURING THE RELEASE EVENT; MAOP IS 867 PSIG; EPNG TECHNICIANS INVESTIGATED RELIEF (BELIEVE DEBRIS OR TRASH MAY HAVE BEEN THE CAUSE OF PREMATURE RELIEF); RELIEF VALVE WAS RESET AND RETURNED TO SERVICE; PIPELINE SEGMENT WAS MANNED AND PRESSURE MANUALLY MONITORED WHILE RELIEF VALVE WAS NOT IN SERVICE; RELIEF VALVE RETURNED TO SERVICE 18:00 (MOUNTAIN);

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT.

PHMSA indexed costs: $15,545 reported total cost, $14,009.506 in 1984 dollars, $17,790.052 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.