Pipeline Accident Report - Texas Eastern Gas Pipeline Company, Ruptures and Fires at Beaumont, Kentucky on April 27, 1985 and Lancaster, Kentucky on February 21, 1986

摘要

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the pipeline accident near Beaumont, Kentucky, was the unsuspected and undetected atmospheric corrosion of Texas Eastern Gas Pipeline Company's 30-inch-diameter pipeline in a casing under State highway 90. Contributing to the accident was the failure of the pipeline industry and of the Office of Pipeline Safety to recognize the need for and to require the use of in-line corrosion detection techniques for identifying and monitoring the existence and severity of corrosion in casings and other areas shielded from corrosion protection. The probable cause of the pipeline accident near Lancaster, Kentucky, was the failure of the Texas Eastern Gas Pipeline Company to fully investigate the extent and severity of previously detected and inspected corrosion-caused damage and to replace the damaged segment of pipeline before its failure. Contributing to the accident was the lack of gas company guidelines for its personnel for further inspection and the shut down or reduction in line pressure upon detecting corrosion damage on its pipelines.