A.D. Koen
Senior Editor-News
Receding floodwater east of Houston last week revealed damage to a dozen Southeast Texas pipelines, including three that spilled crude oil and refined products into the swollen San Jacinto River.
Officials speculated that flood borne debris damaged the pipelines, some of which had been buried for more than 30 years.
Most of the damage occurred at a point about 400 yd west of a horseshoe bend in the river just north of Interstate Highway 10 (I-10), where the flood gouged a new channel through the San Jacinto floodplain. That exposed an estimated 17 lines.
Damage also occurred at pipeline river crossings installed in the older channel, but most of the older river crossings remained intact.
About four dozen oil, gas, or products pipelines cross the San Jacinto River east of Houston, including about 30 that temporarily shut down Oct. 20 at the request of the Texas Railroad Commission (RRC). RRC issued the request after unleaded gasoline, accidentally released from a rupture in Colonial Pipeline Co.'s 40 in. Line 1, caught fire, sending a wall of flame and dark smoke rolling down the San Jacinto.
By early last week, voluntary shutdowns had halted the releases with the exception of a small, persistent leak that developed the afternoon of Oct. 20 in Colonial's 36 in. Line 2 products pipeline.
Emergency response crews included federal and state officials, pipeline company spill response teams, and about two dozen spill remediation contractors. By midweek, response teams were focusing most attention on cleaning up the last of the released material that did not burn or evaporate.
With accidental releases staunched and cleanup well under way, Federico Pena, secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, pledged his department will continue immediate and comprehensive inspections to assure the safety and environmental integrity of federally regulated pipelines in the Houston area.
Meanwhile, questions persisted about how many companies will have to repair pipelines damaged in the flood, the extent of repairs likely to be required, and how soon affected lines could be returned to service.
REPORTED RELEASES
In addition to Colonial's large diameter gasoline and products pipelines, pipelines that failed because of flood damage were:
- Texaco Pipeline Inc.'s 20 in., 200,000 b/d, bidirectional crude oil line connecting Texaco's East Houston tank farm with facilities at Port Arthur, Tex.
- Exxon Pipeline Co.'s 8 in. liquefied petroleum gas pipeline.
- Valero Natural Gas Partners LP's 12 in., 100 MMcfd, gas pipeline running about 30 miles from a connection with other Valero lines near Friendswood, Tex., southeast of Houston, northeast to the Mont Bellview, Tex., area.
Exxon, which has four pipelines crossing the San Jacinto just south of I-10a, was the first to realize it had a possible pipeline rupture when on the evening of Oct. 19 it noted a drop in pressure on its LPG line. Two other Exxon pipelines-a 20 in. crude oil line and an 8 in. products line carrying jet were damaged in the flood but didn't leak.
Colonial first suspected it had a problem at 8:30 a.m. Oct. 20, when pipeline sensors detected and reported a sudden drop of pressure on Line 1. The company dispatched its emergency response crews to the scene and notified authorities before Line 2 ruptured the afternoon of Oct. 20.
Technicians manning Valero's gas control area at its San Antonio corporate headquarters about 3:45 p.m. Oct. 20 noticed a sudden drop in pressure on the company's 12 in. Sinco gas pipeline, indicating some sort of leak. The company deployed field hands to block off the line on either side of the San Jacinto River and at the Houston Ship Channel, then essentially let remaining pressure bleed off the line by that evening.
Texaco became aware of possible flood damage to pipelines in the Houston area the morning of Oct. 20, when local television news crews began broadcasting images of a huge fire following a series of explosions on the San Jacinto. But the company did not believe it had a line leak until the morning of Oct 21, when a Texaco official flying over the site noted material that appeared to be crude oil.
"At that point-or anytime there's a possibility one of our pipelines could be leaking-our standard response is to assume it might be ours and react as though it is," said Edmond R. Murray Jr., Texaco Pipeline executive vice-president.
By the middle of last week, all four companies with ruptured lines in the San Jacinto floodplain had stemmed the flows and had begun planning to repair the lines to prepare for a return to service.
Transportation's Pena said safety will not be compromised in the push to restore pipeline operations across the San Jacinto River.
DOT's plans include three short term measures and two long term steps. The first priority is to control the damage and find out what went wrong. Second, officials must affirm the safety of pipelines affected by flooding in the area "so we can get vital fuel stocks moving again as quickly as possible," Pena said.
Longer term, DOT will speed completion of a rule proposing new requirements for hazardous liquid pipeline valves and leak detection systems. Final rules now are expected by December 1995.
POSSIBLE MARKET EFFECTS
Shippers using pipelines shut in by flood damage have other, more costly alternatives for moving products to market. Some chartered barges to deliver shipments to marine terminals in East Texas and Louisiana. Product supplies also were being made up by U.S. refiners with facilities east of the severed links, but questions remained about how much those plants could increase throughput.
Analysts reserved the greatest concern for reformulated gasoline (RFG) supplies, which is to be available at U.S. distribution terminals by Dec. 1, 1994, and at retail outlets by Jan. 1, 1995.
Wright Killen & Co., Houston, said because about 30 days of lead time is needed to accumulate adequate inventories, outages of product pipeline capacity in the Houston area could hamper U.S. refiners' efforts to meet the Dec. 1 deadline for having sufficient RFG in storage at distribution terminals in the U.S. Northeast.
Before Houston area pipelines were shut down, many refiners planned to begin RFG shipments to the Northeast in late October to achieve an orderly transition from conventional and oxygenated supplies to RFG. Now those plans will have to be revised.
"We believe that unless gasoline shipments from Houston using Colonial pipelines resume flowing by the first week of November, there might not be sufficient time to establish workable inventory levels of RFG in the Northeast by Dec. 1," said Tom Hawthorne, Wright Killen manager of refining strategy and business analysis. "Operating with less than workable inventory, levels will increase significantly the likelihood of spot shortages."
Copyright 1994 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
