Federal regulators revealed a long-awaited rule that aims to prevent natural gas pipeline accidents by placing new requirements on operators, including regulations to confirm how much pressure can safely flow through their lines.
The final rule made public in the Federal Register on Sept. 30 is the first in a batch of three rulemakings that have been in the works for the better part of the last decade. The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, or PHMSA, broke a larger-scale gas safety regulation into three parts in 2018 after struggling for years to complete it.
"PHMSA is finalizing requirements that address the causes of several recent |
The rule will take effect July 1, 2020. While many operators have begun identifying the parts of their systems that will be affected by the rule, its unveiling is just the first part of a lengthy and busy process for impacted companies, said Keith Coyle, attorney at Babst Calland and a former PHMSA adviser.
"With a rule like this, there's going to be all kinds of complexities and intricacies and language not speaking for itself. We're going to spend a long time figuring out exactly what all these new regulations mean," Coyle said.
A major provision in the rule will require some companies to reconfirm the maximum allowable operating pressure, or MAOP, on parts of their pipeline systems. MAOP is a critical aspect of pipeline safety that governs the pressure at which gas can flow through a segment of a line.
That part of the rule will chiefly apply to infrastructure for which MAOP has not been tested in decades because the systems were built prior to regulations requiring periodic reassessment. Previously, these lines could take advantage of a grandfather clause to establish MAOP using pre-1970 data. The rule will apply to grandfathered lines operating at or above 30% of their specified minimum yield strength.
Operators will also have to compile records on material properties such as a line's diameter and wall thickness, which are needed to reconfirm MAOP, if they do not have documentation that is "traceable, verifiable, and complete," PHMSA said. Those include records on pressure tests and mechanical properties, which help operators confirm that MAOP on their lines is appropriate for the conditions where they are located.
PHMSA gave companies with insufficient records six options for reconfirming MAOP as well as an acceptable method for obtaining material property records. The agency also included a requirement for operators to report when the pressure in a transmission line exceeds MAOP.
Much of the rule traces its roots to the deadly 2010 gas explosion on a PG&E Corp. pipeline in San Bruno, Calif., which caused the National Transportation Safety Board and Congress to issue a number of recommendations and mandates, respectively, to PHMSA. The pipeline regulator missed its congressionally mandated deadline for releasing a transmission safety rule years ago.
"The tremendous growth in U.S. energy production will require greater anticipation and preparation for emerging risks to public safety," PHMSA Administrator Skip Elliott said in a Sept. 24 statement announcing the imminent publication. "These forward-looking rules will help ensure pipeline operators invest in continuous improvements to pipeline safety and integrity management."
Another substantial part of the rule obligates companies to carry out integrity tests on their pipelines in areas where they were not previously required to conduct the assessments. Existing safety rules require the tests, which involve running diagnostic tools through lines to look for weaknesses, in so-called high consequence areas, or HCAs, such as heavily populated regions where accidents have a greater chance of causing death or major damage.
Operators with pipelines in additional locations and newly designated moderate consequence areas will have to conduct initial tests in the regions within 14 years of the rule's publication and repeat the tests once every 10 years.
"These assessments will provide important information to operators about the conditions of their pipelines, including the existence of internal and external corrosion and other anomalies, and will provide an elevated level of safety for the populations in MCAs while continuing to allow operators to prioritize the safety of HCAs," PHMSA said.
The rule also establishes a six-month grace period for integrity management tests that must be completed every seven years. It further requires operators to "explicitly consider and account for" the frequency and nature of earthquakes in regions where they operate pipelines during the course of risk management studies.
PHMSA estimated the annual cost of the rules at $32.7 million, based on a 7% discount rate. It did not quantify the benefits, choosing instead to discuss them on a qualitative basis.
PHMSA said it anticipates releasing the related rules later this year. The second rule will address repairs to damaged pipelines both within and beyond HCAs, institute new inspection criteria and update integrity management requirements. The third will extend rules to gas gathering lines, the infrastructure that connects production wells to transmission systems.
The release of the gas transmission regulation somewhat overshadowed two other final rules made public Sept. 30.
The Enhanced Emergency Order Procedures rule expands PHMSA's authority to issue temporary directives to pipeline operators when a condition or practice poses "an imminent hazard to public health and safety or the environment." Similar existing authorities typically address unsafe conditions on a single pipeline or system. The new authority would allow the agency to issue orders to multiple operators, facilities and systems under certain circumstances with wide-ranging impacts, such as during a natural disaster or when an industry practice or type of equipment is discovered to be unsafe.
The Safety of Hazardous Liquid Pipelines rule expands record-keeping regulations to certain types of hazardous materials lines. It also requires inspections following extreme weather events and natural disasters and extends regulations for integrity assessments and leak detection on lines located beyond HCAs. Another provision requires operators with lines in HCAs to be able to accommodate in-line inspection tools within 20 years.

