Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Tennessee Gas Pipeline
Location
Country	United States
General direction	North-east
From	Texas-Louisiana Gulf coast
To	New England
General information
Type	Natural gas
Owner	Kinder Morgan
Contractors	TGT
Commissioned	1943
Technical information
Length	14,000 mi (23,000 km)
Diameter	32 in (813 mm)

Range

Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company (TGPL) owns 13,457 miles of natural gas transmission pipelines which run from the Gulf of Mexico coast in Texas and Louisiana through Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania to deliver natural gas in West Virginia, New Jersey, New York, and New England.^[1]

Background

The first pipelines were constructed by Tennessee Gas Transmission Company (TGT) beginning in 1943. Tenneco which owned TGT eventually sold off this pipeline which was owned by El Paso Corporation until 2012, but is now owned by Kinder Morgan. It is one of the largest pipeline systems in the United States. Its FERC code is 9.^[2] TGP's PHMSA pipeline operator i.d. is 19160.^[3]

In 2014, Kinder Morgan opened efforts to build a new Tennessee Gas Pipeline branch with 117 miles (188 km) of greenfield pipeline from Pennsylvania to Wright, New York, and 129 miles (208 km) of greenfield pipeline to Dracut, Massachusetts.^[4] The Kinder Morgan proposal met with immediate resistance from local and state officials, conservation organizations, and more than twenty Massachusetts towns that the proposed pipeline would cross.^[5]

Public and environmental safety, or the lack thereof, was an overriding concern due to TGP's history of pipeline accidents.

Significant Incidents

From 2006 to 2014, Tennessee Gas Pipeline had 92 "significant incidents" with their pipelines, resulting in $88,144,152 in property damage and 19 federal enforcement actions.^[6]

A "significant incident" results in any of the following consequences:

• 1. fatality or injury requiring in-patient hospitalization
• 2. $50,000 or more in total costs, measured in 1984 dollars
• 3. highly volatile liquid releases of 5 barrels or more
• 4. releases resulting in an unintentional fire or explosion.^[7]

Tennessee Gas Pipelines have had so many problems that from 2006 to 2013, federal inspectors were onsite at TGP locations for 383 days (more than a year of inspections) plus 98 days of accident investigations.^[8]

PHMSA gas transmission pipeline failure reports 2003-2012 include 45 TGP failures which caused $110,563,378 in property damage.

Overall, faulty infrastructure causes the majority of TGP's onshore gas transmission pipeline accidents. Corrosion (internal or external), equipment malfunctions, manufacturing defects, faulty welds, and incorrect installation together account for 54% of TGP's leaks.^[9]

Failures may be escalating as pipelines age. From 2006-2014, PHMSA lists 92 TGP incidents with property damage of $88,144,152.^[10]

Accidents (a partial list)

• On the night of March 4, 1965, 32-inch (810 mm) diameter gas transmission pipeline, north of Natchitoches, Louisiana, belonging to the TGPL, exploded and burned from stress corrosion cracking, killing 17 people. At least 9 others were injured, and 7 homes 450 feet (140 m) from the rupture were destroyed, the deadliest gas transmission pipeline accident in U.S. history. This explosion, and others of the era, led then-President Lyndon B. Johnson to call for the formation of a national pipeline safety agency (PHMSA) in 1967. The same pipeline had also had an explosion on May 9, 1955, just 930 feet (280 m) from the 1965 failure.^{[11][12][13][14]}

• On January 13, 2004, a TGP pipeline accident in Port Sulphur, Louisiana, caused by "incorrect operation," did $97,621 in property damage.^[15]

• On March 23, 2005, a TGP pipeline in Louisiana failed due to "previous mechanical damage" and destroyed property valued at $1,808,504.^[15]

• On December 29, 2005, a TGP line in Kentucky failed at a butt weld and caused $598,302 in property damage.^[15]

• On May 19, 2006, another TGP line failed at a butt weld and did $214,560 in property damage in East Millfield, Ohio.^[15]

• On July 22, 2006, a Tennessee Gas pipeline in Kentucky leaked and exploded. A 25-foot chunk of pipe blew out of the ground, landing 200 feet away from the rupture, twisted and mangled. The pipe's external coating was burned off the piece that was blown out of the ground. Investigators found that the 24" pipeline ruptured due to external corrosion 2-3 feet long near the fracture, and within 2-4 inches of the longitudinal seam. The fracture followed the edge of the longitudinal seam in the area of the pitting. The pipeline failed in the bottom of a valley in an area of wet shale; shale terrain in this part of Kentucky is known to cause corrosion on buried pipelines. (A major pipeline failure occurred on TGP's 26-inch Line 100-3 on July 23, 1980, about 3 mi. from this one.) Investigation showed that failures in shale terrain near Clay City / Campbellsville were attributable to external bacterial corrosion.^[16]

• On February 17, 2007, at Cypress, Texas, a TGP pipe failed due to "previous mechanical damage," injured one person, and destroyed property valued at $806,056.^[15]

• In September 2008, two TGP failures at Grand Isle, Louisiana caused more than $10 million in damage due to heavy rain and flooding.^[15]

• On November 20, 2010, a TGPL 30-inch (760 mm) diameter gas pipeline failed at Natchitoches, Louisiana. There was no fire, but the pipeline had a magnetic flux smart pig test earlier in the year, that indicated no flaws in the pipeline. The failure was at a crack in a wrinkle bend. The deadly 1965 gas pipeline accident occurred on a different TGPL pipeline nearby.^[17]

• On December 8, 2010, at East Barnard, Texas, a Tennessee Gas Pipeline rupture blew a 100' by 25' crater, throwing a 12-foot section of pipe 295 feet. Investigation showed that internal microbial corrosion had removed 80% of the pipe wall.^[18]

• On February 10, 2011, a TGP pipeline in Columbiana County, Ohio (in eastern Ohio, near the Pennsylvania border, between Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown, and Pittsburgh) leaked at a weld and exploded. Flames shot 200 feet (61 m) into the air and were visible for 40 miles (64 km). Before gas lines could be shut down, brush fires ignited. Evacuated residents returned to their homes the next day. Property damage approached $3 million.

• On March 1, 2011, another TGP pipe suffered a second leak in the same 36" pipeline that exploded 2/10/2011.^[19]

• On the morning of November 16, 2011, a TGP pipeline exploded near Glouster, Ohio.^[20] This was the third leak in the same pipeline that exploded 2/10/2011. The November explosion was set off by a spark from debris, static electricity, or nearby electrical transformers that ignited the escaping gas, creating a 30-foot-wide by 15-foot-deep crater & setting several houses & barns afire 500 feet away. The leak was attributed to landslides and a crack in the pipe. Property damage approached $2 million.^[21]

• On November 21, 2011, a TGPL 24-inch (610 mm) 24" diameter gas transmission pipeline exploded and burned near Batesville, Mississippi. Twenty homes were evacuated, but there were no injuries or major property damage. The pipeline failed at a repair sleeve over a wrinkle bend installed in 1946. The explosion created a crater 78' wide by 15' deep; the fire burned for several hours and destroyed a wooden high voltage tower. Fortunately the nearest house was beyond the calculated blast radius.^[22]

• On January 14, 2012, a major leak at a TGP gas compressor station in Powell County, Kentucky forced area residents to evacuate. There was no fire.^[23]

• On January 24, 2014, a Tennessee Gas pipeline at Victoria, Texas, had a “significant event” due to a weld failure.^[24]

References

External links

• Pipeline Electronic Bulletin Board
• Tennessee Gas Pipeline