# KINDER MORGAN TEJAS PIPELINE — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2017-02-15

- **operation:** document
- **citation:** PHMSA Report 20170023
- **title:** KINDER MORGAN TEJAS PIPELINE — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2017-02-15
- **source type:** incident
- **agency:** Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
- **status:** historical
- **official:** true
- **published on:** 2017-03-17
- **effective on:** 2017-02-15
- **summary:** Gas transmission and gathering incident in Not Within a Municipality, REFUGIO County, TX. Reported cause: CORROSION FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 138587 NATURAL GAS released, $581,000 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. PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.
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**body:**

Gas transmission and gathering incident in Not Within a Municipality, REFUGIO County, TX. Reported cause: CORROSION FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 138587 NATURAL GAS released, $581,000 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: 20170023.

Operator ID: 4900.

Reported incident date: 2/15/2017 0:22.

Location detail: 89.6

Cause detail: EXTERNAL CORROSION

Cause detail: ON FEBRUARY 15, 2017 AT 12:22 AM, KINDER MORGAN TEJAS PIPELINE (KM TEJAS) GAS CONTROL SAW A LINE BREAK INDICATION ON THE KM TEJAS PIPELINE SYSTEM BETWEEN STATION 2 AND STATION 3 NEAR REFUGIO, TEXAS AND CONTACTED FIELD PERSONNEL TO INVESTIGATE CAUSE OF THE LINE BREAK. KM TEJAS FIELD PERSONNEL VERIFIED A FAILURE ON THE KM TEJAS PIPELINE AND IMMEDIATELY ISOLATED THE LINE. POST-INCIDENT, KM TEJAS PERFORMED AN INVESTIGATION INCLUDING ENGAGED THIRD-PARTY COMPANIES TO PERFORM MECHANICAL LOAD AND METALLURGICAL EVALUATIONS. BASED SOLELY ON THE SESI MECHANICAL LOAD EVALUATIONS AND EN ENGINEERING METALLURGICAL EVALUATIONS THE IMMEDIATE CAUSE OF THE INCIDENT COULD NOT BE DETERMINED. BASED ON THE SESI REPORT, THE INCIDENT WAS MOST LIKELY CAUSED BY SOME COMBINATION OF STRESS FACTORS ON THE PIPELINE. AT PHMSA'S REQUEST, KM TEJAS IS ESTIMATING REPLACEMENT COSTS FOR THE PRIVATE PROPERTY DAMAGE OF WHICH IT IS AWARE INCLUDING TWO DAMAGED PIECES OF PRODUCTION EQUIPMENT (ESTIMATED TO BE APPROXIMATELY $23,775) AND THE COST FOR DAMAGE TO 1,406 TREES (ESTIMATED TO BE $77,321). THIS INFORMATION IS PROVIDED IN PART D 7A "ESTIMATED COST OF PUBLIC AND NON-OPERATOR PRIVATE PROPERTY DAMAGE". ADDENDUM EFFECTIVE JULY 12, 2018: KM TEJAS CONTINUED TO REVIEW THE INFORMATION RELATED TO THE FAILURE AND TO CONDUCT ADDITIONAL ANALYSIS TO DETERMINE WHETHER ANY ADDITIONAL CONCLUSIONS OR CONTRIBUTING FACTORS COULD BE IDENTIFIED. THROUGH CONTINUED ANALYSIS OF THE INFORMATION, KM TEJAS HAS CONCLUDED THAT V-GROOVE CORROSION (ALSO CALLED "SELECTIVE SEAM WELD CORROSION") IS THE IMMEDIATE CAUSE OF THE FAILURE. ADDITIONALLY, KM TEJAS CONCLUDED THAT CATHODIC PROTECTION LEVELS, THE PRESENCE OF FERROMAGNETIC MATERIAL, AND LOW SEAM TOUGHNESS EXPERIENCED AT LOWER AMBIENT TEMPERATURES WERE CONTRIBUTING FACTORS. NOTE THAT THE DAMAGE REFERENCED IN THIS FORM, PHMSA F 7100.2, PART G1 QUESTION 5 THE COATING WAS NOT DAMAGED BY THIRD-PARTY, MECHANICAL, NATURAL FORCES, ETC. BUT WAS LIKELY DAMAGED FROM SOIL STRESSES.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: CORROSION — EXTERNAL.

PHMSA indexed costs: $1,232,945 reported total cost, $844,643.697 in 1984 dollars, $1,464,299.657 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.
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