NATURAL GAS PIPELINE CO OF AMERICA (KMI) — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2014-05-26

Gas transmission and gathering incident in HUNGERFORD, WHARTON County, TX. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 10311 NATURAL GAS released, $0 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: 20140068.

Operator ID: 13120.

Reported incident date: 5/26/2014 23:05.

Cause detail: MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT

Cause detail: LIGHTING TRIPPED A BREAKER, CAUSING A LOSS OF STATION AIR SUPPLY. THE LOSS OF AIR SUPPLY ALLOWED A FAIL OPEN ACTUATOR TO OPERATE AND VENT THE NATURAL GAS FROM A COMPRESSOR UNIT AS DESIGNED. THE EXCESSIVE RELEASE OF NATURAL GAS WAS CAUSED BY THE 12" UNIT DISCHARGE VALVE NOT BEING 100% CLOSED. THE ROOT CAUSE OF UNIT DISCHARGE VALVE NOT BEING CLOSED WAS INADEQUATE PROCEDURES FOR PERFORMING THE STATION ANNUAL ESD TEST. THIS STATION HAS NOT BEEN IN OPERATION FOR SEVERAL YEARS, BUT IS HOOKED TO THE PIPELINE AND IS TESTED ANNUALLY. IN THE STEPS OF THE PROCEDURE, IT WAS WORDED AS "UNIT DISCHARGE VALVES SHOULD CLOSE". THE UNIT DISCHARGE VALVES ARE ACTUATED. AT THE LAST ANNUAL ESD TEST PRIOR TO THIS INCIDENT, THE ACTUATOR FAILED TO CLOSE THE VALVE 100%. THE ANNUAL ESD TEST PROCEDURE WAS WRITTEN DURING A TIME PERIOD WHEN THE STATION WAS RUNNING, AND IF A UNIT DESHARGE VALVE WAS NOT CLOSED IT WOULD BEEN KNOWN IMMEDIATELY. SINCE THE STATION IS NOT RUNNING IT WAS NOT VERIFIED AS CLOSED AT THE LAST ANNUAL ESD TEST. A STEP WAS ADDED TO THE PROCEDURE WORDED - "VERIFY EACH UNIT DESHARGE VALVE IS CLOSED" TO MAKE SURE THIS ISSUE DOES NOT ARISE IN THE FUTURE.

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

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

PHMSA indexed costs: $50,000 reported total cost, $34,588.441 in 1984 dollars, $42,469.352 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.