TENNESSEE GAS PIPELINE CO (EL PASO) — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2010-03-08

Gas transmission and gathering incident. Reported cause: CORROSION FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 4266 NATURAL GAS released, $271,000 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: 20100029.

Operator ID: 19160.

Reported incident date: 3/8/2010 10:00.

Cause detail: INTERNAL CORROSION

Cause detail: DUE TO POOR 3RD PARTY REPORTING OF LEAK COORDINATES, WEATHER CONDITIONS AND CLOSE PROXIMITY TO THE SUBSEA CONNECTION, CONFIRMATION OF A REPORTABLE LEAK WAS DELAYED. THE INITIAL REPORT WAS RECEIVED MARCH 8, 2010 AT 10:00 AM CST. TGP BEGAN TRYING TO LOCATE THE LEAK BUT ISOLATED THE SUSPECTED 20" 509A-1100 PIPELINE EVEN THOUGH A LEAK WAS NOT CONFIRMED. THE LEAK WAS EXTREMELY SMALL WITH THE PIPELINE LOSING APPX. 10 PSI PER DAY. ON MARCH 12, 2010 A LEAK WAS LOCATED IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO A SUBSEA CONNECTION AND A MAINTENANCE (TIGHTNESS TYPE) LEAK WAS SUSPECTED. SEVERAL ATTEMPTS WERE MADE TO DIVE ON THE LOCATION WITH ULTIMALTE SUCCESS TO REPAIR IT BY APRIL 19, 2010. A PIN HOLE IN THE 6:00 POSITION WAS IDENTIFIED VERY CLOSE TO THE SUBSEA CONNECTION MOST LIKELY CAUSED BY INTERNAL CORROSION. PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN ATTEMPTING TO MAKE A SUCCESSFUL DIVE INCLUDED INCLEMENT WEATHER AND DIFFICULTY IN OBTAINING PRODUCER PLATFORM BOARDING AGREEMENTS.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: CORROSION — INTERNAL.

PHMSA indexed costs: $294,760 reported total cost, $163,467.833 in 1984 dollars, $383,818.117 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.