ONEOK NGL PIPELINE, LLC

Incident Narrative

AREA OPERATOR RESPONDED TO A GAS DETECT STATION LOCK OUT, AND SEAL FAIL LOCKOUT ON PUMP 2 AT OAKHURST. DURING THE INVESTIGATION, IT WAS DISCOVERED THAT PRODUCT WAS RELEASING FROM THE OUTBOARD SEAL BETWEEN THE GLAND AND LOCK COLLAR. THE MAJORITY OF PRODUCT WAS RELEASED INTO THE ATMOSPHERE. UPON ARRIVAL THE AREA REP BLEW THE REMAINDER OF THE PRODUCT DOWN AND THE PUMP WAS PLACED OUT OF SERVICE. MECHANICS AND SUPERVISOR WERE NOTIFIED. AN ESTIMATED 14 BBLS OF Y GRADE WAS RELEASED INTO THE ATMOSPHERE. THE ROOT CAUSE IDENTIFIED BY CHAMPION MANUFACTURING, OUR INTERNAL INVESTIGATION AND CAUSE MAP DETERMINED THAT A STICKY SUBSTANCE POSSIBLY A COMBINATION OF GLYCOL, AMINE AND PIPELINE ROUGE HAD COATED THE PRIMARY SEAL DURING OPERATION, WHICH DAMAGED THE O-RINGS PREVENTING THEM FROM BEING ABLE TO MOVE FREELY IN TURN CREATED HEAT WHICH ULTIMATELY LED TO THE SEAL FAIL. THE SECONDARY SEAL FAIL WAS CAUSED BY THE INTRODUCTION OF THE SAME SUBSTANCE AFTER THE PRIMARY SEAL LET GO PREVENTING THE SECONDARY SEAL FROM SEALING. THE ONLY FEASIBLE SOLUTION WE ARRIVED AT IS TO TRY AND IDENTIFY THE INJECTION SITE RESPONSIBLE FOR INTRODUCING THE FOREIGN SUBSTANCE BY AGGRESSIVELY CHECKING STRAINERS AND FILTERS AT OUR INJECTION SITES BETWEEN BRIDGEPORT AND CLEBURNE BOOSTERS. AS OF 8/22/2014 WE HAVE NOT IDENTIFIED ANY INJECTION LOCATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN DETERMINED TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE FOREIGN SUBSTANCE. 12/17/2014 -- ONEOK HAS SAMPLED PRODUCT FROM ALL OF THE INJECTION SITES AND HAS NOT BEEN ABLE TO DETERMINE WHERE THE SUBSTANCE ORIGINATED. ALL INJECTION PLANTS HAVE BEEN REMINDED OF THE MINIMUM PRODUCT QUALITY STANDARDS REQUIRED TO INJECT PRODUCT INTO ONEOK'S PIPELINE.