EL PASO FIELD SERVICES — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2003-03-02

Gas transmission and gathering incident. Reported cause: 22. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, $1,000 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: 20030034.

Operator ID: 30950.

Reported incident date: 3/2/2003.

Cause detail: RUPTURED OR LEAKING SEAL/PUMP PACKING

Cause detail: ON MARCH 2, 2003, AT 11:52 AM, A LEAK REPORT WAS CALLED INTO THE NRC IN BLOCK HIA 555. DURING A ROUTINE FLYOVER, OUR HELICOPTER PILOT HAD NOTICED BUBBLING AT THE OCEAN SURGACE OVER OUR HIOS PIPELINE. EL PASO FIELD SERVICES OPERATES SEVERAL PIPELINES IN THE AREA OF THE LEAK. FURTHER INVESTIGATION IDENTIFIED THE AREA AS A LOCATION WHERE OUR HIA 531 LATERAL AND OUR HIA 557 LATERAL INTERCONNECT WITH OUR HIA 20" PIPELINE. WE PROCEEDED TO SHUT IN PRODUCTION ON THE HIA 557 LATERAL TO DETERMINE IF PRESSURE ON THE LATERAL SYSTEM WOULD DROP. IT DID NOT. ON MARCH 3, 2003 WE PROCEEDED TO SHUT IN ALL OTHER PRODUCTION IN THE AREA TO PREVENT THE CONTINUANCE OF GAS LOSS. THIS WAS COMPLETED BY 4:00 PM. A DIVE VESSEL WITH AN ROV WAS MADE AVAILABLE ON MARCH 5, 2003. THE DIVE TEAM IDENTIFIED TWO LEAKS AT THE SUBSEA TIE IN. ONE WAS A STEM LEAK ON THE HIOS 20" CHECK VALVE WHICH WE REPAIRED AND THE OTHER WAS A GASKET LEAK ON 20" RTJ 900 SERIES SWIVEL FLANGE ON THE HIA 531 INTERCONNECT WHERE WE FOUND THAT THE FLANGE HAD BEEN IMPROPERLY TORQUED. WE MADE THE NECESSARY REPAIRS AND RETURNED THE PIPELINES TO SERVICE ON MARCH 5, 2003 AT 10:00 PM. THE GAS LOSS AND THE DAMAGE TO MATERIAL WAS MINIMAL. HOWEVER, THE COST TO MAKE THE SUBSEA REPAIR WAS $208.000.

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — RUPTURED OR LEAKING SEAL/PUMP PACKING.

PHMSA indexed costs: $1,000 reported total cost, $675.214 in 1984 dollars, $829.06 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.