Oil flow possible ahead of fix plan

Pipeline restart not precluded

Monday, January 13, 2014

A federal order issued shortly after Exxon Mobil’s Pegasus pipeline ruptured in a Mayflower neighborhood would allow the oil giant to restart the line under certain conditions before Exxon Mobil submits a remedial work plan showing what actions the company will take to ensure that the pipeline operates safely in the future.

Exxon Mobil said last week that the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, often called PHMSA, had granted the company 90 more days to submit the remedial plan.Now it is not due until April 7, more than one year after the March 29 rupture that spilled an estimated 210,000 gallons of heavy crude.

On whether the extension meant that it would be well after that date before Exxon Mobil could restart the now-shuttered Pegasus, company spokesman Aaron Stryk said, “We cannot speculate on when the pipeline will be restored to service. It will only be restarted when we are convinced it is safe to do so and have the approval from PHMSA.”

Asked later if a company can restart a pipeline before the remedial work plan is submitted, Stryk referred to the corrective action order, which the safety administration amended May 10.

“In general the [corrective action order] suggests that a company can restart prior to submitting a remedial work plan with a pressure restriction of [80 percent] of the actual operating pressure in effect immediately prior to the failure,” Stryk said in an email.

Document set

Mayflower oil spill

Technically, Exxon Mobil’s understanding of the order is accurate. But getting federal approval to restart is unlikely without that remedial plan. Also, a separate plan to restart the pipe is also required.

Damon Hill, a safety administration spokesman, said: “The operator would be required to submit a restart plan for approval prior to restarting the pipeline. The remedial work plan is also a necessary component to us allowing them to restart the pipeline.

“The corrective action order doesn’t say it [the remedial work plan] is required for them to restart,” Hill added. “But it is a plan that we would want to see prior to authorizing them to restart the pipeline.”

Exxon Mobil has not filed a restart plan.

As for whether a company would have to complete everything it eventually details in a remedial plan before a pipeline is restarted, Hill said the answer depends on the activities outlined. Certain activities, such as some types of in-line testing, require the line to be in service, he noted.

Hill also said Exxon Mobil and the government are still investigating the Good Friday rupture that spilled oil into the Northwoods neighborhood, three drainage ditches and Lake Conway’s Dawson Cove. Since then, three houses have been demolished because of oil beneath their foundations, and the cleanup continues in the cove and drainage areas.

A laboratory hired by Exxon Mobil found that manufacturing defects were partly to blame for the rupture of the pipe, built in 1947-48 by a now-defunct company.

Pipeline safety consultant Richard Kuprewicz questioned the wisdom of restarting the pipeline without a remedial work plan.

“Why would you restart if you haven’t been real clear as to why this pipeline failed?” said Kuprewicz, who is advising Central Arkansas Water on safety issues relating to the Lake Maumelle watershed, which provides drinking water to about 400,000 Arkansans. The Pegasus pipeline runs through part of the watershed.

Lowering the pressure isn’t a total solution either, Kuprewicz suggested. He noted that the Pegasus cracked open at a pressure lower than its maximum operating pressure.

“If anybody is trying to create the impression that they’ve had a pipeline rupture and they drop the pressure by 20 percent, that’s a sufficient safety margin … then they don’t understand the failures that occurred,” Kuprewicz said.

“PHMSA is aware that there are pipelines that have restarted under reduced pressure and then ruptured,” though such accidents have been rare, he said.

Kuprewicz said the pipeline agency sometimes allows a line to resume operating at a reduced pressure when the operator and the agency have agreed on a remedial work plan and some issues aren’t immediately resolved. But the root causes of a failure should be determined before a restart, said Kuprewicz, who serves on a technical advisory committee to the safety administration.

Besides, he said, “You get another rupture after you start back up, you’re never going to run that line again.”

Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/13/2014