Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) Archives

Material Verification for Oil and Gas Clients Pipeline Integrity Solutions

News & Views, Volume 50 | Material Verification for Oil and Gas Clients

October 6, 2021/in Company News, Mega-Rule, News and Views, Oil and Gas Pipeline, Roger Royer, Scott Riccardella/by Structural Integrity

PIPELINE INTEGRITY SOLUTIONS

By: Scott Riccardella and Roger Royer

On October 1, 2019, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published amendments to 49 CFR Parts 191 and 192 in the Federal Register, issuing Part 1 of the Gas Transmission Mega-Rule or “Mega-Rule 1”. In advance of Mega-Rule 1, SI developed field protocol and supported leading industry research institutes in validating in-situ Material Verification (MV) methodologies. SI has continued to provide MV consulting support to our clients in response to Mega-Rule 1, ranging from program development and implementation to in-situ field data collection and analysis.

Various sections of Mega-Rule 1 require operators of natural gas transmission pipelines to ensure adequate Traceable, Verifiable, and Complete (TV&C) material records or implement a MV Program to confirm specific pipeline attributes including diameter, wall thickness, seam type, and grade. Operators are now required to define sampling programs and perform destructive (laboratory) or non-destructive testing to capture this information and take additional actions when inconsistent results are identified until a confidence level of 95% is achieved. Opportunistic sampling per population is required until completion of testing of one excavation per mile (rounded up to the nearest whole number).

News & Views, Volume 45 | Gas Pipeline Safety Regulation Update

January 1, 2019/in Bruce Paskett, Eric Fisette, Mega-Rule, News and Views, Oil and Gas Pipeline, Scott Riccardella/by Structural Integrity

By: Scott Riccardella. Erica Fisette, and Bruce Paskett

Update on the Safety of Gas Transmission and Gathering Pipelines Rulemaking (known as the Mega-Rule)
Structural Integrity (SI) personnel have had significant involvement in the Gas Pipeline Advisory Group (GPAC) meetings focused on consideration of the proposed pipeline safety rule titled “Safety of Gas Transmission and Gathering Pipelines” (Notice of Proposed Rule Making April 8, 2016). The meetings produced several recommendations to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) that are likely to be included in the Final Rule. A key outcome of these meetings was that PHMSA has decided the Final Rule will be split into three sub-rule packages that will all be final rules to facilitate the rulemaking process:

Maximum Allowable Operating Pressure (MAOP) reconfirmation, Material Verification, Expansion of Integrity Management Assessments Outside of High Consequence Areas (HCAs) and other related issues,
Repair Criteria, Inspections Following Extreme Weather Events, Corrosion Control improvements, Management of Change; and
Expansion of Part 192 regulations to include additional Gas Gathering Lines.

News & Views, Volume 44 | Update on Proposed Safety of Gas Transmission and Gathering Pipeline Regulation

April 27, 2018/in Bruce Paskett, Eric Fisette, News and Views, Oil and Gas Pipeline, Scott Riccardella/by Structural Integrity

By: Scott Riccardella, Erica Fisette, and Bruce Paskett

Structural Integrity (SI) has significant depth and expertise in current pipeline safety regulations and dedicates substantial resources to ensure a comprehensive understanding of proposed pipeline safety regulations. Using the most current insights relative to upcoming regulations, Structural Integrity guides our clients with strategic direction to best position their pipeline safety programs to comply with the new regulations. Structural Integrity takes a proactive role in attending key Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) meetings such as the Gas Pipeline Advisory Committee (GPAC) meetings as well as supporting the rulemaking efforts of the American Gas Association (AGA), Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA), Pipeline Research Council International (PRCI) and other key associations.

The GPAC is a statutorily mandated Committee that advises PHMSA on proposed gas pipeline safety standards and regulations. The Committee consist of members from Federal and State governments (PHMSA and National Association of Pipeline Safety Representatives or NAPSR), the regulated industry, and the general public. The Committee is responsible for reviewing the technical feasibility, reasonableness, cost-effectiveness, and practicability of proposed standards and regulations relative to pipeline safety. The goal of the Committee is to provide recommended revisions and/or actions in response to standards and/or regulations proposed by the Federal Department of Transportation (DOT)/ PHMSA.

News & Views, Volume 44 | Strategic Internal Corrosion Monitoring for Gas Pipelines

April 27, 2018/in Corrosion, Lance Barton, Monitoring, News and Views, Oil and Gas Pipeline/by Structural Integrity

By: Lance Barton and Tom Pickthall (EnhanceCo)

REGULATORY OVERVIEW
A March 16, 2017, advisory bulletin (Docket No. PHMSA-2016-0131 – “Pipeline Safety: Deactivation of Threats”) gave guidance on the deactivation of pipeline threats, including the threat of internal corrosion. On April 8, 2016, PHMSA issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) entitled “Safety of Gas Transmission and Gathering Pipelines”. Section §192.478 “Internal Corrosion Control: Onshore transmission monitoring and mitigation” of the NPRM would increase the scrutiny and requirements for monitoring and mitigating the threat of internal corrosion for the gas industry.

This bulletin and NPRM reinforce the requirements of CFR part 192-subpart O, Section 192.937, requiring gas pipeline operators to continuously assess their pipelines for the threat of internal corrosion as part of their overall integrity management program. One of the requirements is to determine if the gas entering the system is corrosive or not corrosive. The optimal way to prove that the gas is not corrosive is to build a thorough continuous monitoring program that considers guidance from the NPRM and the advisory bulletin.

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