TEXAS GAS TRANSMISSION, LLC — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2015-09-09

Gas transmission and gathering incident in FARMERVILLE, UNION County, LA. Reported cause: MATERIAL FAILURE OF PIPE OR WELD. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 42100 NATURAL GAS released, $207,439 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: 20150120.

Operator ID: 19270.

Reported incident date: 9/9/2015 16:30.

Location detail: 28+4276

Cause detail: ENVIRONMENTAL CRACKING-RELATED

Cause detail: TEXAS GAS EXPERIENCED A PIPELINE FAILURE OF ITS MAIN LINE SYSTEM 26" NO. 1 LINE IN UNION PARISH, LOUISIANA. THERE WERE NO INJURIES. THE CAUSE REMAINS UNDER INVESTIGATION. 3-15-16 UPDATE TO FINALIZE REPORT INCLUDING COST AND CAUSE. BASED ON STRESS ENGINEERING'S VISUAL EXAMINATION AND METALLURGICAL ANALYSES OF THE SAMPLES PROVIDED, ALONG WITH OBSERVATIONS FROM A VISIT TO THE SITE, SES CONCLUDED THAT THE MONROE FAILURE WAS CAUSED BY A COMBINATION OF CORROSION AND NEAR-NEUTRAL PH STRESS CORROSION CRACKING. THE INFORMATION AVAILABLE TO SES DID NOT ALLOW A DETERMINATION OF THE PRECISE TIMING OR EXACT CONDITIONS THAT LED TO THE FAILURE. HOWEVER, IT WAS APPARENT THAT CORROSION ENLARGED CRACKS IN THE PIPE, THEREBY SIGNIFICANTLY CONTRIBUTING TO THE FAILURE. THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF THE PIPE MATERIAL WERE TESTED AND FOUND TO MEET THE REQUIREMENTS OF API 5LX IN EFFECT IN 1948 (AS WELL AS CURRENT REQUIREMENTS). WHILE THE MATERIAL TOUGHNESS WAS LOW, THIS PROPERTY ALONE DID NOT PLAY A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN THE FAILURE. 4-29-16 REVISED CAUSE ON PART G TO REFLECT LABORATORY ANALYSIS FINDINGS. 5-23-16 REVISED PER PHMSA REQUEST TO REPORT CAUSE UNDER SECTION G5 INSTEAD G1.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: MATERIAL FAILURE OF PIPE OR WELD — ENVIRONMENTAL CRACKING-RELATED.

PHMSA indexed costs: $467,961 reported total cost, $340,309.551 in 1984 dollars, $554,096.321 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.