EL PASO NATURAL GAS CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2013-09-16

Gas transmission and gathering incident in LORDSBURG, HIDALGO County, NM. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 7800 NATURAL GAS released, $100 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: 20130091.

Operator ID: 4280.

Reported incident date: 9/16/2013 8:15.

Location detail: 341

Cause detail: MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT

Cause detail: REGULATOR FAILED CAUSING RELIEF VALVE TO OPEN. DID NOT EXCEED MAOP PLUS ALLOWABLE BUILDUP. A MOONEY FLOWGRID REGULATOR FAILED BECAUSE OF A DIAPHRAM THAT RUPTURED DUE TO LOSS OF FLEXIBILITY. THE REGULATOR FAILURE TRIGGERED THE RELIEF VALVE TO OPEN. THE RELIEF VALVE FUNCTIONED PROPERLY. THE MOONEY FLOWGRID REGULATOR IS SIZE 2 INCH WITH A CAPACITY OF 535.956 MCF PER HOUR. THE AGCO RELIEF VALVE HAS AN INLET SIZE 3 INCHES AND OUTLET SIZE 4 INCHES WITH A CAPACITY OF 611.206 MCF PER HOUR. THE REGULATOR WAS REBUILT WITH A NEW DIAPHRAM AND PLACED BACK IN SERVICE 9/16/2013.

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

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

PHMSA indexed costs: $31,300 reported total cost, $25,305.822 in 1984 dollars, $31,135.576 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.