SHELL PIPELINE COMPANY LP — Hazardous liquid — incident on 2006-11-27

Hazardous liquid incident. Reported cause: 5. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, YES CRUDE OIL released, $9,500,060 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: 20060346.

Operator ID: 31174.

Reported incident date: 11/27/2006.

Cause detail: HEAVY RAINS/FLOODS

Cause detail: THIS PIPELINE HAS BEEN SHUT DOWN SINCE BEFORE HURRICANE KATRINA. WE WERE CONDUCTING A STAND-UP TEST ON THE LINE TO INSURE INTEGRITY. WE USED SEAWATER TO BEGIN STAND-UP TEST, REACHED 70 PSI AND PRESSURE DROPPED TO 0 PSI. WE INVESTIGATED BY HELICOPTER TO LOCATE RELEASE SITE. SITE OIL SPOTTED 28 56 19N 89 16 82W IN THE GULF OF MEXICO, SOUTH PASS 38. WE PULLED A VACUUM ON THE LINE TO REDUCE FURTHER RISK OF SHEENING. WILL NEED VESSEL TO GET TO SITE AND INVESTIGATE POSSIBLE CAUSE AND REPAIRS REQUIRED. REPLACED 2,000 FEET OF PIPELINE AROUND MUD SLIDE AREA. BELIEVE PIPE FAILED DUE TO EXTENAL NATURAL FORCES CAUSED BY MUD SLIDE ON SEA FLOOR.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: NATURAL FORCE DAMAGE — HEAVY RAINS/FLOODS.

PHMSA indexed costs: $9,500,060 reported total cost, $5,555,325.416 in 1984 dollars, $13,681,056.763 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.