The U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration's (\"PHMSA\") recent notice of proposed rulemaking would significantly expand the safety requirements that apply to the nation's natural gas pipelines.[1] Comments on the NPRM are due July 7, 2016. This White Paper provides a detailed guide to PHMSA's proposed rule and highlights four \"take-aways\" from the NPRM for executives and in-house counsel.
office 2016 crack kms to 113
Conceptually, an \"identified site\" is an alternative way to identify areas where people are likely to be present, and thus affected by a pipeline rupture. An identified site means: (i) an outside area or open structure that is occupied by 20 or more persons on at least 50 days in any 12-month period, such as a beach, playground, or camping ground; (ii) a building that is occupied by 20 or more persons on at least five days a week for 10 weeks in any 12-month period, such as religious facilities, office buildings, community centers, or general stores; or (iii) a facility occupied by persons who are confined, are of impaired mobility, or would be difficult to evacuate, such as a hospital, prison, school, or retirement facility.[18] Thus, whereas a \"class location\" is a broad designation that corresponds only roughly to a location where a rupture could do serious harm, operators have the option to define an HCA more precisely to identify a pipeline segment whose rupture could do the most harm.
PHMSA proposes to define an MCA using a modified version of the criteria used to define an HCA. A point along a pipeline segment is within an MCA if the \"potential impact circle\" around that point contains: (i) five or more buildings intended for human occupancy (with some exceptions) (as compared to 20 or more such buildings when defining an HCA); (ii) an \"occupied site\"; or (iii) \"a right-of-way for a designated interstate, freeway, expressway, and other principal 4-lane arterial roadway\" as defined by the Federal Highway Administration.[19] An \"occupied site\" includes: (i) an outside area or open structure that is occupied by five or more persons on at least 50 days in any 12-month period, such as a beach, playground, or camping ground (as compared to 20 or more persons when defining an HCA); or (ii) a building that is occupied by five or more persons on at least five days a week for 10 weeks in any 12-month period, such as religious facilities, office buildings, community centers, or general stores (as compared to 20 or more persons when defining an HCA).[20] Any area within an MCA that meets the more selective HCA criteria remains a \"covered segment\" subject to PHMSA's Integrity Management rules.
The ECA also must: (i) \"integrate and analyze\" the results of any documentation of the pipeline segment's constituent material, if the segment was subject to Section 192.607's \"material verification\" requirement, as well as integrate and analyze the results of other tests and assessments listed in the regulation; (ii) analyze any \"cracks or crack-like defects remaining in the pipe, or that could remain in the pipe, to determine the predicted failure pressure\" using the \"techniques and procedures\" in three Battelle Final Reports incorporated by reference into the regulation or using \"other technically proven methods,\" and meeting other requirements included in the regulation; (iii) analyze any \"metal loss defects not associated with a dent including corrosion, gouges, scrapes or other metal loss defects that could remain in the pipe to determine the predicted failure pressure\" using a method that meets the requirements included in the regulation, including the use of certain conservative assumptions; and (iv) analyze \"interacting defects to conservatively determine the most limiting predicted failure pressure for such defects.\"[51] The ECA must establish the pipeline segment's MAOP at the lowest predicted failure pressure \"for any known or postulated defect, or interacting defects, remaining in the pipe\" divided by 1.25 (or by 1.50 if the segment is located in a Class 3 or 4 location).[52]
For line segments that do not have records of a Subpart J pressure test, an operator using the ECA method must develop and implement an in-line inspection program that can detect \"wall loss, deformation from dents, wrinkle bends, ovalities, expansion, seam defects including cracking and selective seam weld corrosion, longitudinal, circumferential and girth weld cracks, hard spot cracking, and stress corrosion cracking.\"[53] The operator, at \"a minimum,\" must conduct an assessment using a \"high resolution magnetic flux leakage\" tool, a \"high resolution deformation\" tool, and either an \"electromagnetic acoustic transducer\" tool or an \"ultrasonic testing\" tool.[54] Rather than use these tools, however, an operator may use \"other technology\" if: (i) it is \"validated by a subject matter expert in metallurgy and fracture mechanics to produce an equivalent understanding of the condition of the pipe\"; and (ii) the operator provides PHMSA at least 180 days' advance notice and obtains a \"no objection letter\" from PHMSA's Associate Administrator of Pipeline Safety.[55] The proposed regulation lists numerous other requirements applicable to the ECA-related in-line inspection program, including the requirement that inspections be performed in accordance with Section 192.493.[56]
Section 192.917(e) currently defines specific actions an operator must undertake when it identifies the following threats to pipeline integrity: third-party damage, cyclic fatigue, manufacturing and construction defects, the presence of electric resistance welded (\"ERW\") pipe, and corrosion. With respect to the threats posed by cyclic fatigue and the presence of ERW pipe, PHMSA proposes to add the requirement that, for a pipe segment with cracks, the operator must conduct \"fracture mechanics modeling\" for failure stress pressures and cyclic fatigue crack growth in accordance with new Section 192.624(d).[93]
First, PHMSA would add the \"spike\" pressure test performed in accordance with Section 192.506, \"which is particularly well suited to address stress corrosion cracking.\"[97] This spike pressure test is discussed in Section II.B of this White Paper.
PHMSA also proposes to incorporate an industry standard, NACE SP0206-2006, to govern the use of internal corrosion direct assessments and another industry standard, NACE SP0204-2008, to govern the use of stress corrosion cracking direct assessment.[111] The changes to Section 192.927 impose a series of related requirements, including the requirement that, when performing an indirect inspection, operators must \"use pipeline specific data, exclusively. The use of assumed pipeline or operational data is prohibited.\"[112]
As amended, Section 192.713 would require immediate repair of: (i) an anomaly where the remaining strength of the pipe shows a predicted failure pressure less than or equal to 1.1 times MAOP; (ii) a dent that has any indication of metal loss, cracking, or a stress riser; (iii) metal loss greater than 80 percent of nominal wall regardless of dimensions; (iv) an indication of metal loss affecting a detected longitudinal seam, if that seam was formed by direct current or low-frequency or high-frequency electric resistance welding or by electric flash welding; (v) any indication of significant stress corrosion cracking; (vi) any indication of significant selective seam weld corrosion; or (vii) an \"indication or anomaly that in the judgment of the person designated by the operator to evaluate the assessment results requires immediate action.\"[129] Until an immediate repair condition is repaired, the operator \"must reduce the operating pressure of the affected pipeline\" to the lower of: (i) 80 percent of the pressure at the time of discovery of the condition; or (ii) a level that \"restores the safety margin commensurate with the design factor\" for the affected pipeline's Class location.[130]
For non-HCA segments, PHMSA defines seven conditions that must be remediated within two years: (i) two types of dents with defined characteristics; (ii) an anomaly where the remaining strength of the pipe shows a predicted failure pressure less than or equal to MAOP times a factor that increases based on Class location (1.25 in Class 1, 1.39 in Class 2, 1.67 in Class 3, and 2.00 in Class 4); (iii) an area of general corrosion with a predicted metal loss greater than 50 percent of nominal wall; (iv) predicted metal loss greater than 50 percent of nominal wall, located at a pipeline crossing or located in an area with widespread circumferential corrosion or an area that could affect a girth weld; (v) a gouge or groove greater than 12.5 percent of nominal wall; and (vi) any indication of a crack or crack-like defect other than an immediate repair condition.[131] For covered segments within an HCA, these same conditions must be remediated within one year.[132] Finally, Section 192.713, as amended, would require pipeline operators to monitor certain types of defects rather than schedule them for remediation.[133]
[1] Notice of Proposed Rule, Pipeline Safety: Safety of Gas Transmission and Gathering Pipelines, Docket No. PHMSA-2011-0023, 81 Fed. Reg. 20,722, 20,732 (April 8, 2016) (\"proposed rule\" or \"NPRM\"). See also 81 Fed. Reg. 29,830 (May 13, 2016) (extending comment due date to July 7, 2016).
[41] Proposed 192.624(a)(1), 81 Fed. Reg. at 20,834. The regulation lists incidents due to \"an original manufacturing-related defect, a construction-, installation-, or fabrication-related defect, or a cracking-related defect, including, but not limited to, seam cracking, girth weld cracking, selective seam weld corrosion, hard spot, or stress corrosion cracking[.]\"
The U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration's ("PHMSA") recent notice of proposed rulemaking would significantly expand the safety requirements that apply to the nation's natural gas pipelines.[1] Comments on the NPRM are due July 7, 2016. This White Paper provides a detailed guide to PHMSA's proposed rule and highlights four "take-aways" from the NPRM for executives and in-house counsel. 2ff7e9595c
Comments