FLORIDA GAS TRANSMISSION CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2012-02-13

Gas transmission and gathering incident in PRIDE, EAST BATON ROUGE County, LA. Reported cause: CORROSION FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 2250 NATURAL GAS released, $10,000 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: 20120028.

Operator ID: 5304.

Reported incident date: 2/13/2012 2:26.

Location detail: 319+21

Cause detail: EXTERNAL CORROSION

Cause detail: ON 2/13/2012 AT 2:30 A.M. FGT GAS CONTROL CONTACTED THE ZACHARY STATION ON-CALL EMPLOYEE THAT ONE OF THE STATION'S COMPRESSOR ENGINES WENT OFFLINE. WHILE GAS CONTROL WAS STILL CONVERSING WITH THE ON-CALL EMPLOYEE, 2 MORE COMPRESSORS WENT OFFLINE AND A PRESSURE DROP WAS NOTED. ONE OF THE FGT STATION EMPLOYEES THAT LIVES IN THE VICINITY NOTIFIED GAS CONTROL AT 2:33 A.M. THAT HE HEARD A LOUD NOISE IN THE GENERAL AREA OF THE PIPELINE AND THAT HE WAS RESPONDING. INTERNAL COMPANY NOTIFICATIONS WERE MADE AND RESPONSE WAS INITIATED. THE ZACHARY STATION OPERATIONS MANAGER CONFIRMED THE LINE RUPTURE UPON ARRIVING AT THE PEAIRS ROAD LOCATION. THE PRIDE VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT, EAST BATON ROUGE FIRE DEPARTMENT, EAST BATON ROUGE SHERRIFF'S DEPARTMENT AND THE LOUISIANA STATE POLICE WERE ALREADY ONSITE WHEN THE FGT OPERATIONS MANAGER ARRIVED. SHORTLY AFTER ARRIVAL VERBAL AGENCY NOTIFICATIONS WERE MADE TO LSP/LDEQ SPOC HOTLINE. SUBSEQUENT DISCUSSIONS WITH SERGEANT WILLIAM HUNTER OF THE LOUISIANA STATE POLICE ON 2/14/2012, REVEALED THAT NO MANDATORY EVACUATIONS OR OFFICIAL ROAD CLOSURES HAD BEEN INITIATED. DUE TO THE RUPTURE, THE LINE PRESSURE DROP INITIATED THE CLOSURE OF AUTOMATIC VALVE MLV8-1A. THE VALVE CLOSURE STOPPED THE HIGH-PRESSURE GAS LOSS. HOWEVER, BEFORE INITIATION OF REPAIRS ADDITIONAL MEASURES WERE EMPLOYED TO INSURE 0% GAS AT THE LOCATION. PHMSA REQUESTED THAT FGT ADD THE YEAR OF THE LAST TEST POINT SURVEY TO THIS REPORT, ALTHOUGH THE NEAREST TEST POINT WAS NOT CLOSE TO THE POINT OF THE INCIDENT. ALSO ADDED THAT A METALURGICAL REPORT CONFIRMED EXTERNAL CORROSION. **THIS REPORT IS BEING SUBMITTED IN RESPONSE TO PHMSA'S REQUEST FOR SUPPLEMENTAL REPORTS FROM OPERATORS WHO SUBMITTED REPORTS FOR INCIDENTS OCCURRING AFTER JANUARY 1, 2010, WITH ANY OF THE FOLLOWING: (1) ``PIPE GIRTH WELD'' WAS SELECTED AS THE ``ITEM INVOLVED IN INCIDENT'' IN PART C3 OF THE REPORT. THE REVISED REPORT COLLECTS DATA ABOUT THE PIPE ADJACENT TO THE GIRTH WELD. (2) ``FUNCTION OF PIPELINE SYSTEM'' IS NULL IN PART E5F OF THE REPORT. THE REVISED REPORT COLLECTS THE FUNCTION OF THE PIPELINE SYSTEM FOR ALL INCIDENTS. THIS REPORT HAS NO FURTHER UPDATES AND IS BEING SUBMITTED AS A FINAL.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: CORROSION — EXTERNAL.

PHMSA indexed costs: $471,850 reported total cost, $251,252.692 in 1984 dollars, $609,631.824 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.