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October 2008

Vol. 13, No. 43 Week of October 26, 2008

State, feds investigate rupture of gas line

Cause of Sept. 29 injection line break at Prudhoe undisclosed; help from Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration

Wesley Loy

Anchorage Daily News

The state has asked federal regulators to help investigate the rupture of a natural gas pipeline in late September in the Prudhoe Bay oil field.

The rupture was violent, causing the steel pipe to break apart and sending a piece flying across the tundra. No one was hurt in the Sept. 29 incident.

The state Petroleum Systems Integrity Office has begun an investigation and has asked a federal agency, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, to assist.

“The state’s in charge of the investigation. We’re supporting them,” said Dennis Hinnah, an engineer who heads the pipeline administration’s Anchorage office.

The federal assistance is significant, as the pipeline administration has taken an increasingly aggressive role in scrutinizing pipelines in the remote North Slope oil fields.

Federal work ramped up

The agency began to ramp up its Alaska work following disastrous leaks from corroded, BP-operated pipelines in 2006. Those leaks ultimately led to BP’s Alaska subsidiary to plead guilty to a federal misdemeanor pollution crime. A judge put the company on probation for three years and imposed $20 million in penalties.

BP executives acknowledged lapses in pipeline maintenance, but since then the company has said it is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to replace miles of bad pipelines.

The 2006 spills led to creation of the state’s Petroleum Systems Integrity Office and to a local expansion of the federal pipeline administration, an arm of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Both agencies aim to keep a closer watch on the aging network of pipes and plants at Prudhoe, the nation’s largest oil field, which has been producing since 1977. BP runs the field on behalf of itself and other major owners including Exxon Mobil and Conoco Phillips.

Since the spills, the federal agency has ordered BP to improve pipeline monitoring and upkeep. It requires BP to file monthly status reports.

The cause of the rupture in the high-pressure natural gas pipeline on Sept. 29 remains undisclosed.

Preliminary report to state

BP representatives met the week of Oct. 13 with state officials including Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Irwin to give a preliminary report on the mishap.

But state and federal officials, as well as BP spokesman Steve Rinehart, declined to supply a copy of the report or reveal its contents, saying the findings are preliminary pending further investigation.

Kevin Banks, state oil and gas director, said the federal pipeline administration can lend engineering expertise to try to figure out why the gas line broke.

The pipe, about 8 inches in diameter, carried natural gas to a well pad for injection underground. The gas essentially adds fizz to the reservoir, helping lift more oil to the surface.

When the pipe ruptured, no workers were nearby and no fiery explosion occurred. Safety systems shut down the flow of gas automatically, Rinehart said.

The pipeline failure forced the shutdown of some Prudhoe wells producing about 5,000 barrels a day, less than 1 percent of total North Slope production.

The failed gas line, considered a localized pipe, in not among the major lines that federal inspectors normally oversee, but the pipeline administration is still willing to help with the state’s investigation, Hinnah said.






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