CALNEV PIPELINE CO

Incident Narrative

AT APPROXIMATELY 0604 THE CALNEV 8"" PIPELINE WAS RESTARTED TO RE-PRESSURE THE LINE FOLLOWING AN HOUR-LONG SHUTDOWN. AT 0609 PUMPING UNIT #3 SHUT DOWN DUE TO A HIGH OUTBOARD BEARING TEMPERATURE ALARM. HCC CONTACTED LOCAL PERSONNEL TO INVESTIGATE. COLTON NORTH OPERATOR 12 CONTACTED A LOCAL TECHNICIAN TO FURTHER TROUBLESHOOT. A SHORT TIME LATER THE OPERATOR 12 OBSERVED THE PUMP FULLY ENGULFED IN FLAMES FROM THE CONTROL WINDOW. 911 AND LOCAL MANAGEMENT WERE THEN NOTIFIED. LOCAL PERSONNEL WERE ABLE EXTINGUISH THE FIRE WITH THREE 30# FIRE EXTINGUISHERS. SUBSEQUENT INVESTIGATION AND ANALYSIS AT A THIRD PARTY PUMP REPAIR SHOP DETERMINED THAT SEVERAL SET SCREWS WERE MISSING FROM THE INBOARD LOCKING COLLAR LIKELY ALLOWING ABNORMAL AXIAL MOVEMENT RESULTING IN THE OUTBOARD SEAL SLEEVE CONTACTING THE BRASS DEFLECTOR AND THEN THE DEFLECTOR CONTACTED THE BEARING HOUSING END COVER, CAUSING THE SEAL SLEEVE TO STOP TURNING WHICH ALLOWED THE SHAFT TO TURN INSIDE THE SHAFT SLEEVE. THIS ULTIMATELY CAUSED THE EXCESSIVE HEAT RESULTING IN THE SEAL FAILURE AND FIRE. NOTE: PART A, 9 ESTIMATED VOLUME OF COMMODITY RELEASED UNINTENTIONALLY & PART D, 8B. THE PRODUCT WAS CONSUMED BY FIRE, THE ESTIMATED VOLUME RELEASED WAS 0.2 BBLS AS CALCULATED BY LOCAL OPERATIONS USING INFORMATION FROM PERSONNEL WHO PUT OUT THE FIRE AND CONFIRMED BY KM ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT.