WTG GAS TRANSMISSION COMPANY — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2012-12-05

Gas transmission and gathering incident in GOLDSMITH, ECTOR County, TX. Reported cause: CORROSION FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 5212 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: 20120128.

Operator ID: 31968.

Reported incident date: 12/5/2012 18:00.

Location detail: MILEPOST

Cause detail: EXTERNAL CORROSION

Cause detail: DURING PREPARATION FOR AN 8 HOUR INTEGRITY MANAGMENT PRESSURE TEST (REQUIRED BY THE STATE OF TEXAS) SCHEDULED FOR DECEMBER 6, 2012, WTG EMPLOYEES BART BEAN, CHRIS BALTZELL, AND RAY REED WERE IN THE PROCESS OF INCREASING THE PRESSURE PROFILE OF THE SNYDER 16" PIPELINE FROM THE MARTIN COUNTY #3 COMPRESSOR STATION TO THE EL PASO ENERGY TAP WEST OF THE TOWN OF GOLDSMITH, TEXAS. DURING THE MORNING OF DECEMBER 5TH, THE PIPELINE WAS CONFIGURED FOR TEST AND NOTIFICATION WAS MADE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC WITHIN 660' OF THE PIPELINE. IN ADDITION TO THE PUBLIC, THE CITY OFFICIALS FROM GOLDSMITH WERE NOTIFIED OF THE PENDING TEST. THE PLAN INCLUDED ISOLATION OF THE TEST SEGMENT AND RAISING THE PRESSURE PROFILE OF THE PIPELINE. THE PLAN WAS TO RAISE PRESSURE WITHIN THE PIPELINE TO A POINT JUST BELOW 610 PSIG (MAOP) ON THE DAY PRIOR TO TEST. COMPRESSION AT MARTIN COUNTY #3 WAS THE PRESSURE SOURCE. THE DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM WAS BEING MONITORED AT MARTIN COUNTY #3, AT APPROXIMATELY 17:45, THE PRESSURE AT A DELIVERY POINT ON THE WEST END OF THE SYSTEM WAS 499 PSIA. THE NEXT CYCLE OF THE DATA AT APPROXIMATELY 18:00, PRESSURE AT THE SAME POINT HAD DECREASED TO 450 PSIA. IMMEDIATELY MARTIN COUNTY 3 COMPRESSION WAS ISOLATED FROM THE SNYDER 16" PIPELINE AND DURING THIS PROCESS CHRIS BALTZELL RECEIVED A CALL AT 18:02 FROM AN EMPLOYEE WITH THE CITY OF GOLDSMITH COMMUNICATING BLOWING GAS WEST OF TOWN. THE FOLLOWING ISOLATION PLAN WAS DEVELOPED AND IMMEDIATELY ENACTED: CHRIS BALTZELL TO SIGHT OF BLOWING GAS RAY REED TO BLOCK VALVE #1 TO ISOLATE (CLOSEST TO BV TO SCENE) BART BEAN TO RE-CONFIGURE MARTIN COUNTY #3, ISOLATE BLOCK VALVE #4, ORGANIZED EMERGENCY RESPONSE, CONTACTED CREWS TO INTIATE REPAIRS AND THEN TO SCENE OF BLOWING GAS DURING TRAVEL TO SCENE, CHRIS WAS INFORMED THE BLOWING GAS HAD BEEN IGNITED; DCP FACILITIES WERE INVOLVED AND EMERGENCY RESPONDERS WERE IN-ROUTE TO SCENE. TRAVEL DISTANCE TO SCENE FROM MARTIN COUNTY #3 WAS APPROXIMATELY 43 MILES. ORDER OF EVENTS AT SCENE: CHRIS ON SITE AT 18:45 RAY AT BLOCK VALVE #1 AT 18:40 AND ISOLATED AT 18:45 RAY ON SITE AT 18:55 FIRE BURNED OUT AT 19:15 BART ON SITE AT 19:30 CONTRACT PERSONAL AND EQUIPMENT ON STANDBY AT SCENE 20:00

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: CORROSION — EXTERNAL.

PHMSA indexed costs: $453,664 reported total cost, $246,242.691 in 1984 dollars, $582,017.355 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.