HIGH POINT GAS GATHERING, LLC — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2019-01-14

Gas transmission and gathering incident in LA. Reported cause: MATERIAL FAILURE OF PIPE OR WELD. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 9094.533 NATURAL GAS released, $700,000 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: 20190040.

Operator ID: 32595.

Reported incident date: 1/14/2019 13:15.

Cause detail: DESIGN-, CONSTRUCTION-, INSTALLATION-, OR FABRICATION-RELATED

Cause detail: A FISHERMAN IN THE AREA SAW THE BUBBLING WATER AND REPORTED TO THE NRC AND THE LOCAL PARISH SHERIFF'S OFFICE. AMID OPERATIONS CONTROL CENTER WAS NOTIFIED BY THE US COAST GUARD. AFTER FLY-OVERS TO VIEW THE AREA, IT WAS CONFIRMED TO BE AN AMID 20" NATURAL GAS GATHERING PIPELINE. THE LINE WAS SHUT IN. UPON FURTHER INVESTIGATION BY A THIRD-PARTY CONTRACTOR, THE LINE HAD FAILED AT A WELD, WITH THE ENTIRE GIRTH COMING APART. THIRD PARTLY ANALYSIS ON THE PIPE DETERMINED THE ROOT CAUSE WAS FATIGUE FRACTURE IN GIRTH WELDMENT DUE TO MECHANICAL VIBRATION (OSCILLATION). INSTALLED MECHANICAL FLANGES AT EACH CUT WHERE THE DAMAGED SECTION OF THE PIPELINE WAS REMOVED. INSTALLED PRE-HYDROTESTED PIPE SECTION WITH 9 PALLETS OF 3:1 CEMENT/SAND BAGS FOR SUPPORT. LINE WAS LEAK TESTED AT OPERATING PRESSURE, DIVERS OBSERVED FOR 2 HOURS AND VERIFIED NO LEAKS AT THE FLANGES.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: MATERIAL FAILURE OF PIPE OR WELD — CONSTRUCTION, INSTALLATION OR FABRICATION-RELATED.

PHMSA indexed costs: $801,390 reported total cost, $412,079.318 in 1984 dollars, $932,391.235 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.