ENTERPRISE CRUDE PIPELINE LLC — Hazardous liquid — incident on 2012-05-17

Hazardous liquid incident in JONES CREEK, BRAZORIA County, TX. Reported cause: INCORRECT OPERATION. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 0.1 CRUDE OIL released, $0 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: 20150249.

Operator ID: 30829.

Reported incident date: 5/17/2012 4:00.

Location detail: JONES CREEK

Cause detail: OTHER INCORRECT OPERATION

Cause detail: IN REFERENCE TO PARTS A(6), F, AND I, THIS REPORT IS BEING MADE AS PART OF A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW AND ANALYSIS OF PRIOR INCIDENTS OR NEAR MISSES INVOLVING FLASH FIRE OR IGNITION OF FLAMMABLE VAPORS, PURSUANT TO A COMPLIANCE ORDER ISSUED BY PHMSA (CPF NO. 4-2014-5017). THE PURPOSE OF THIS JOB WAS TO INSTALL A TEE IN A 24-INCH PIPELINE. A SECTION OF THE PIPE WAS REMOVED BY COLD CUTTING AND A MUD PLUG WAS INSTALLED TO ISOLATE THE LINE FROM ANY REMAINING VAPORS DURING WELDING ON THE TEE. THE LINE WAS OPEN ON BOTH SIDES OF THE MUD PLUG PRIOR TO ITS INSTALLATION. WHILE THE LINE WAS BEING CUT, ANOTHER CREW WAS INSTRUCTED TO INSTALL A BLIND FLANGE ON THE LINE, ENCLOSING THE PIPE BETWEEN THE MUD PLUG AND THE BLIND FLANGE. RESIDUAL HYDROCARBONS IN THE ENCLOSED PIPE BUILT PRESSURE, EVENTUALLY CAUSING A MIST TO OVERCOME THE MUD PLUG. THE MIST WAS IGNITED BY WELDING ON THE TEE, CAUSING A SHORT-DURATION FLASH FIRE.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: INCORRECT OPERATION — OTHER INCORRECT OPERATION.

PHMSA indexed costs: $0 reported total cost, $0 in 1984 dollars, $0 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.