WEST TEXAS GULF PIPELINE CO

Incident Narrative

AT APPROXIMATELY 08:45 ON 12/22/17 LOCAL OPERATING PERSONNEL WERE PERFORMING THE ROUTINE STATION CHECK AT WORTHAM AND DISCOVERED A SMALL QUANTITY OF CRUDE OIL COLLECTING BESIDE A STATION ROAD. OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND THE CONTROL CENTER WERE NOTIFIED AND THE WORTHAM TO TRINITY SEGMENT WAS SHUT DOWN AT APPROXIMATELY 09:13. THE LOCATION OF THE RELEASE WAS SITUATED BETWEEN THE LAUNCHER VALVE AND THE STATION HEADGATE VALVE AND BOTH WERE CLOSED TO FURTHER ISOLATE THE RELEASE. ALL FREE PRODUCT WAS RECOVERED AND CONTAMINATED SOIL IS BEING REMEDIATED ON SITE VIA LAND FARMING. THE AREA OF THE RELEASE WAS EXCAVATED AND INVESTIGATED. THE SOURCE OF THE RELEASE APPEARED TO BE EMINATING FROM UNDERNEATH A PRIOR COMPOSITE WRAP REPAIR THAT WAS APPLIED IN 2011 TO REPAIR A DENT. PRIOR DEF/MFL AND UT ILI DATA WAS REVIEWED AND NO OTHER FEATURES WERE IDENTIFIED ON THE JOINT CONTAINING THE FAILURE BEYOND DENTS. FAILED SECTION OF PIPE WAS CUT OUT AND SENT TO 3RD PARTY LABORATORY FOR ANALYSIS. 3RD PARTY REPORT INDICATES THAT THE PIPE LEAKED AT A COLONY OF CIRCUMFERENTIALLY ORIENTED CRACKS THAT WERE LOCATED AT THE BOTTOM OF A DENT AND THE MAJORITY OF THE CRACK PROPAGATION OCCURRED BY FATIGUE MECHANISM. THE DENT AND FATIGUE APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY THE PRIOR SETTLING OF THE PIPE ONTO A CONCRETE FOUNDATION LOCATED UNDER THE PIPE. THE CONCRETE FOUNDATION WAS REMOVED WHEN THE COMPOSITE WRAP WAS APPLIED IN 2011. ALL OTHER WEST TEXAS GULF STATIONS WERE REVIEWED TO LEARN LOCATIONS OF SIMILAR CONCRETE SUPPORTS THAT CAUSED THIS DENT. THESE LOCATIONS WERE REVIEWED BY PIPELINE INTEGRITY FOR DENTS AND METAL LOSS INDICATIONS AND NONE WERE FOUND.