PHMSA Report 20140130 - SHELL PIPELINE CO., L.P. — Hazardous liquid — incident on 2014-03-06 | Regulus

Hazardous liquid incident in PORT NECHES, JEFFERSON County, TX. Reported cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 225 CRUDE OIL released, $70,000 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: 20140130.

Operator ID: 31174.

Reported incident date: 3/6/2014 15:24.

Location detail: 186+21

Cause detail: EXCAVATION DAMAGE BY OPERATOR'S CONTRACTOR (SECOND PARTY)

Cause detail: LOCATING ISSUE

Cause detail: FACILITY MARKED INACCURATELY DUE TO LOCATOR ERROR

Cause detail: HORIZONTAL DIRECTIONAL DRILLER IMPACTED THE MAINLINE 20" PIPELINE DURING SET UP OF DIRECTIONAL DRILLING EQUIPMENT. HE WAS SETTING ANCHORS TO SECURE THE EQUIPMENT. HDD PUNCTURED THE 20" MAINLINE WITH ANCHORS. THE CONTROL CENTER SCADA SYSTEM IDENTIFIED THE LOSS OF OIL, ALERTED THE CONTROLLER. THE CONTROLLER ACTED AND SHUT DOWN THE PIPELINE WITHIN TWO MINUTES OF THE ALARM. PIPELINE WAS NOT MARKED PRIOR TO THE SETTING OF THE ANCHORS OF THE HDD EQUIPMENT. SPLC'S RIGHT OF WAY TECHNICIAN DID NOT MARK THE REQUESTED AREA PRIOR TO THE START OF EXCAVATION ACTIVITIES. NEITHER SPLC'S PROJECT SUPERVISOR (ENGINEERING FIRM) NOR THE DESIGNATED REPRESENTATIVE (SPLC'S GENERAL CONTRACTOR) HAD ASSUMED THE ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITY FOR TEMPORARY LOCATIONG AND MARKING OF SPLC'S PIPELINE IN THE PROJECT AREA. PER THE SPLC'S GENERAL CONTRACTOR SITE SAFETY PLAN, SPLC'S GENERAL CONTRACTOR, WAS REQUIRED TO LOCATE AND CONFIRM VIA PROBE UNDERGROUND FACILITIES WITHIN THE EXCAVATION AREA PRIOR TO ANY EXCAVATION.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE — OPERATOR/CONTRACTOR EXCAVATION DAMAGE.

PHMSA indexed costs: $2,770,000 reported total cost, $1,405,548.17 in 1984 dollars, $3,461,432.563 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.