EL PASO NATURAL GAS CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2017-07-09

Gas transmission and gathering incident in Not Within a Municipality, LUNA County, NM. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 0 NATURAL GAS released, $84,000 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: 20170066.

Operator ID: 4280.

Reported incident date: 7/9/2017 1:36.

Location detail: FLORIDA B

Cause detail: OTHER EQUIPMENT FAILURE

Cause detail: THIS FIRE WAS ASSOCIATED TO A COUPLE OF LEAKING COMPONENTS ON THE HYDRAULICALLY CONTROLLED NOZZLE ACTUATOR SYSTEM. CONTROL OIL CONTINUED TO DRIP DOWN ONTO THE HOT DISCHARGE AIR PIPING BLANKETS UNTIL THEY WERE SATURATED, CAUSING THE LUBE OIL TO EXCEED THE 200 DEGREE AUTO-IGNITION FLASH POINT, AND BECOMING THE ORIGIN OF THIS FIRE. CORRECTIVE ACTIONS: "FLORIDA B" GE FRAME 3/5 TURBINES WITH MCO TYPE NOZZLE ACTUATORS (NON-REXA) WILL BE VISUAL INSPECTED. OPERATOR SHALL INSPECT FOR ANY INDICATIONS OF HYDRAULIC OIL LEAKAGE. AFTER A VISUAL INSPECTION IS COMPLETED, OPERATOR SHALL DISASSEMBLE AND REPLACE SEALS OR GASKETS AS NEEDED ON HIGH-PRESSURE COMPONENTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE NOZZLE ACTUATOR SYSTEM. PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE: ALL "FLORIDA B" NOZZLE ACTUATORS SYSTEMS WILL HAVE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING TASKS PERFORMED DURING THE PREDETERMINED GAS TURBINE ROTATION COMPONENT OVERHAUL. A.- ENTIRE NOZZLE ACTUATOR SYSTEM WILL BE REPLACE WITH A TOTALLY REFURBISHED SYSTEM B.- ENTIRE NOZZLE ACTUATOR SYSTEM WILL BE REMOVED AND SENT OUT TO A VENDOR FOR TOTAL REFURBISHMENT AND RETURNED TO SERVICES. C.- ENTIRE SYSTEM WILL BE DISASSEMBLED ONSITE AND HAVE ALL PARTS AND MATERIALS CLEANED, INSPECTED, AND REPLACED. NOTE: ALL REPORTED TIME IN THIS REPORT ARE IN MST

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — OTHER EQUIPMENT FAILURE.

PHMSA indexed costs: $86,000 reported total cost, $42,959.642 in 1984 dollars, $103,451.36 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.