LNG

The American Gas Association has welcomed the new natural gas transmission pipeline safety rules from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)  as representing a consensus approach to enhancing the safe transportation of America’s abundance of natural gas to domestic customers and LNG plants.

The PHMSA released three rules intended to continue to improve the safety and resilience of the vast US energy delivery infrastructure to keep pace with increased supply and demand.

“This significant update to pipeline safety regulations is the culmination of years of work by government, industry and pipeline safety advocates,” said AGA President and Chief Executive Karen Harbert.

“We applaud PHMSA and everyone who participated in the process for a final rule that brings certainty to our industry and everyone that works to deliver natural gas to customers throughout the country that want it,” stated Harbert.

The AGA pointed out that the Gas Pipeline Advisory Committee provided PHMSA with recommendations on the technical feasibility, reasonableness, cost-effectiveness and practicability of the proposed rule and recommendations to support finalizing the rule.

The PHMSA said the three significant final rules published in the Federal Register will strengthen the safety of more than 500,000 miles of onshore gas transmission and hazardous liquid pipelines throughout the US.

The rules will also enhance the PHMSA’s authority to issue an emergency order to address unsafe safety conditions or hazards that pose an imminent threat to pipeline safety.

“These are significant revisions to federal pipeline safety laws and will improve the safety of our nation’s energy infrastructure,” said US Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao.

The US pipelines deliver trillions of cubic feet of natural gas and hundreds of billions of ton-miles of liquid petroleum products each year.

The pipeline regulator said the gas transmission and hazardous liquid pipeline safety rules would modernize federal pipeline safety standards by expanding risk-based integrity management requirements, enhancing procedures to protect infrastructure from extreme weather events, and requiring greater oversight of pipelines beyond current safety requirements.

The regulator said that final rules address significant Congressional mandates from the Pipeline Safety Act of 2011 and recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board.

“The tremendous growth in US energy production will require greater anticipation and preparation for emerging risks to public safety,” said PHMSA Administrator Skip Elliott.

“These forward-looking rules will help ensure pipeline operators invest in continuous improvements to pipeline safety and integrity management,” Elliot added.

The gas transmission rule requires operators of gas transmission pipelines constructed before 1970 to determine the material strength of their lines by reconfirming the Maximum Allowable Operating Pressure (MAOP).

In addition, the rule updates reporting and records retention standards for gas transmission pipelines.

The hazardous liquid rule encourages operators to make better use of all available data to understand pipeline safety threats and extends leak detection requirements to all non-gathering hazardous liquid pipelines.

In addition, the rule requires operators to inspect affected pipelines following an extreme weather event or natural disaster so they may address any resulting damage.

All three final rules were transmitted to the Federal Register for publication.

The mission of the PHMSA is to protect people and the environment by advancing the safe transportation of energy and other hazardous materials that are essential to the daily lives of citizens.

The PHMSA develops and enforces regulations for the safe operation of the nation’s 2.8 million-mile pipeline transportation system and the nearly one million daily shipments of hazardous materials by land, sea, and air.